Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) Reports Sales Below Analyst Estimates In Q2 CY2026 Earnings

Packaged foods company Hormel (NYSE:HRL) fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2026, with sales falling 2.4% year on year to $2.96 billion. The company’s full-year revenue guidance of $12.15 billion at the midpoint came in 0.7% below analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.37 per share was 4.6% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Best known for its SPAM brand, Hormel (NYSE:HRL) is a packaged foods company with products that span meat, poultry, shelf-stable foods, and spreads.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years.

With $12.15 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Hormel Foods is one of the larger consumer staples companies and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because it’s harder to find incremental growth when your existing brands have penetrated most of the market. To expand meaningfully, Hormel Foods likely needs to tweak its prices, innovate with new products, or enter new markets.

As you can see below, Hormel Foods struggled to increase demand as its $12.15 billion of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue three years ago. This is mainly because consumers bought less of its products — we’ll explore what this means in the “Volume Growth” section.

This quarter, Hormel Foods missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 2.4% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $2.96 billion of revenue.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 1.1% over the next 12 months, similar to its three-year rate. Although this projection implies its newer products will catalyze better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

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Volume Growth

Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (the number of units sold). While both are important, volume is the lifeblood of a successful staples business as there’s a ceiling to what consumers will pay for everyday goods; they can always trade down to non-branded products if the branded versions are too expensive.

Hormel Foods’s average quarterly sales volumes have shrunk by 3.2% over the last two years. This decrease isn’t ideal because the quantity demanded for consumer staples products is typically stable.

In Hormel Foods’s Q2 2026, sales volumes dropped 7.4% year on year. This result represents a further deceleration from its historical levels, showing the business is struggling to move its products.

Key Takeaways from Hormel Foods’s Q2 Results

It was good to see Hormel Foods beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its revenue missed and its gross margin fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock traded down 1.9% to $23.25 immediately following the results.

Hormel Foods’s earnings report left more to be desired. Let’s look forward to see if this quarter has created an opportunity to buy the stock. If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).