BANGALORE (Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc , the no.1 U.S. meat producer, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by a big jump in gross margins, and the company said it was off to a strong start in its current quarter.
However, Tyson's sales fell short of Wall Street expectations due to volume declines across all its businesses of chicken, beef, pork and prepared foods.
The Arkansas-based company posted fourth-quarter net income of $213 million, or 57 cents a share, compared with a loss of $457 million, or $1.23 a share, a year ago.
Excluding special items, Tyson earned 64 cents a share.
Revenue rose 3.2 percent to $7.44 billion.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 56 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $7.75 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Gross margins in the fourth quarter ended October 2 rose to 9 percent from 6.4 percent in the year-ago quarter.
Shares of the company rose 3 percent in pre-market trading. The stock, which has gained 26 percent year-to-date, closed at $15.64 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Mihir Dalal in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
