Campbell Soup stock hit by CEO departure, strategic review

Campbell Soup’s CEO Denise Morrison is  leaving the company, effective immediately, while the company announced that it will begin a strategic review of its various businesses, and will release the results in late August.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
CPB	CAMPBELL SOUP CO.	44.45	+0.64	+1.45%

Morrison, who also served as president and a director on Campbell Soup's board, is retiring after being CEO of the food maker for nearly seven years, and spending more than 15 years, in total, with the company.

Morrison will be replaced by board member Kevin McLoughlin in the interim.

On a call discussing its latest results, on the subject of the strategic review the company’s executives said, “Everything is on the table. There are no sacred cows

Campbell Soup released its latest quarterly results, for its fiscal third quarter, on Friday. The company lost $393 million on sales of $2.13 billion, but turned a per share profit on an adjusted basis. Excluding special items, Campbell earned 70 cents a share, topping the Thomson Reuters compiled estimate of 60 cents a share.

The company reduced its full-year expectations now looking for its per share earnings result to fall between 5%-6% versus its prior call for a 3%-1% decline. The prior outlook did not include the impact from the acquisition of snacks maker Snyder's-Lance.

Commenting on the Snyder-Lance acquisition, executives said it will be modestly dilutive to Campbell’s 2019 adjusted earnings per share.

For 2019, the company expects margins will be down due to cost inflation, hit by import tariffs, transportation and logistics cost.