What Happened?
Shares of natural food company Hain Celestial (NASDAQ:HAIN) fell 22.5% in the morning session after the company reported weak fourth-quarter results: its revenue, EBITDA, and EPS missed significantly. The company attributed the weak performance to "poor in-store performance in snacks, driven by marketing and promotion effectiveness, and supply chain challenges." Overall, this was a poor quarter.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Hain Celestial’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 32 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Hain Celestial and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 6 months ago when the stock gained 31.3% on the news that the company reported strong second-quarter results. Hain Celestial blew past analysts' EPS expectations, and its organic revenue growth also outperformed Wall Street's estimates.
Looking ahead, guidance was promising, with FY'25 organic sales expected to be flat (vs. -2% decline recorded in FY'24). Similarly, adjusted EBITDA is expected to grow by mid-single digits, year on year, while free cash flow is expected to be at least $60m. Zooming out, this was a fantastic quarter, which is being reflected in the significant stock move.
Hain Celestial is down 32.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $4.04 per share, it is trading 59.6% below its 52-week high of $10 from February 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Hain Celestial’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $152.39.
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