This Struggling Food Stock Is Today’s Worst in S&P 500. Why It’s Raising Prices.

Hormel Foods said it was “taking targeted pricing actions” to address commodity inflation. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

Shares of Hormel Foods were tumbling Thursday after the packaged-food company reported disappointing quarterly earnings and implied it would hike prices to combat rising input costs.

Sales totaled $3.03 billion, up 6% from the year prior and above Wall Street’s call for $2.98 billion. But the company posted adjusted earnings of 35 cents a share for its fiscal third quarter, short of analysts’ consensus estimate of 40 cents, due largely to commodity inflation.

Hormel stock was falling 13% Thursday to $25.32, making it the worst performer in the S&P 500. Shares have declined 19% in 2025, including Thursday’s performance.

Interim CEO Jeff Ettinger suggested the company was raising prices to address the steep increase in input costs.

“To address commodity inflation, we are taking targeted pricing actions,” Ettinger said in a statement. “We expect profit recovery to lag into next year, with the near-term pressures we experienced in the third quarter persisting through the fourth quarter.”

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com