Hormel Foods Plunges 29% YTD as Commodity Costs Squeeze Earnings

As of November 14, 2025, Hormel Foods Corporation, a prominent manufacturer and marketer of meat and food products, has substantially underperformed the broader market over the past year. The company's stock prices have plummeted 29% on a year-to-date basis and 26.7% over the past 52 weeks, compared to the S&P 500 Index's 16.5% gains in 2025 and 14.5% returns over the same period.

Hormel Foods' woes can be attributed to a steep rise in commodity input costs, which have squeezed the company's profitability. In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Hormel's adjusted earnings per share (EPS) declined by 5% year-over-year to $0.35, missing the consensus estimates by 14.6%. This disappointing performance led to a 13.1% single-day drop in the company's stock price following the release of its Q3 results on August 28.

Looking ahead, analysts expect Hormel Foods to deliver an adjusted EPS of $1.37 for the full fiscal 2025, down 13.3% year-over-year. The company's earnings surprise history has been lackluster, with it meeting the Street's bottom-line estimates only once over the past four quarters and missing the projections on three other occasions.

Despite the challenges, Hormel Foods has managed to maintain solid organic growth across its segments, leading to a 4.6% year-over-year increase in overall net sales to $3 billion in Q3. However, the company's profitability has been hampered by the rising commodity costs, a trend that is expected to continue in the near future.