Kraft Heinz leverages price increases to edge past earnings estimates
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Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) was able to overcome an unfavorable macroeconomic environment to deliver top and bottom line earnings beats on Wednesday morning. 
The food product producer responsible for everything from A1 Steak Sauce to Velveeta cheese notched Non-GAAP EPS of $0.60 for the quarter, $0.07 above analyst estimates, while revenue at $6.05 billion was $240 million beyond expectations. The company also raised its full-year outlook for organic net sales to a mid-single-digit percentage increase versus the prior-year period due to resilient demand and pricing actions. 
"Our first quarter was a strong start to the year and yet another period where our team rose to mitigate new and different macro environment challenges," CEO Miguel Patricio said. "We continue to build critical capabilities, greater corporate agility, and additional financial flexibility to address short-term turmoil while building our long-term advantage.â
Headlining this financial flexibility was a 9% increase in prices to mitigate rising input costs and inflationary pressures.
While the figures did push past analyst expectations, the results nonetheless represented notable declines year over year. The release notes that the gross profits fell 12.3% from 2021 while net sales slipped 5.5%. Net sales slowdowns were led by the US, which saw an 8.5% drop as compared to the prior year. The company blamed an 11.2% impact from divestitures net of acquisitions and a 1.1% impact from currency for the declines.
âWe still have work to do, more opportunity ahead, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver our plan for the year as well as our long-term growth strategy,â Patricio concluded.
Shares see-sawed between positive and negative territory in pre-market hours. The stock has been a safe haven thus far in 2022, rising 17% in contrast to a double-digit decline for the S&P 500.
An earnings webcast is anticipated for 9:00 AM ET. 
Read more on the recent price action for packaged food stocks.