Tyson Foods achieves 25% EPS growth and $608M adjusted operating income in Q4 2025, signaling strong momentum heading into 2026.

Good day and welcome to the Tyson Foods fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal Conference specialist by pressing the Star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Cottle, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to Tyson Foods' fourth quarter fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. On today's call, Tyson's President and Chief Executive Officer Donnie King, Chief Financial Officer Kirk Callaway and Chief Operating Officer Devin Cole will provide prepared remarks. Following the prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session with the participants who will be joined by our Chief Growth Officer Christina Lambert. We have also provided a supplemental presentation which may be referenced on today's call and is available on Tyson's Investor Relations website and via the link in our webcast. During today's call we will make forward looking statements regarding our expectations for the future. These forward looking statements made during the call are provided pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Forward looking statements include all comments reflecting our expectations, assumptions or beliefs about future events or performance that do not relate solely to historical periods. These forward looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions which may cause actual results to differ materially from our current projections. Please refer to our forward looking statement disclaimers on Slide 2 as well as our SEC filings for any additional information concerning risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our projections. We assume no obligation to update any forward looking statements. Please note that references to earnings per share, operating income and operating margin in our remarks are on an adjusted basis for our fiscal periods unless otherwise noted. For reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their corresponding GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings press release. Now I will turn the call over to Donnie.

Thank you John and thanks to everyone joining us today. I'm pleased to report that our business delivered solid progress and performance this quarter and throughout the year. Looking ahead, we see even more opportunities for growth across all our business units. This quarter we achieved increases in sales, adjusted operating income and adjusted earnings per share, continuing our upward trajectory for the full year. Our annual growth and adjusted operating income was driven by the chicken, pork and prepared food segments along with notable contributions from our International business. In the fourth quarter, our team executed well across our portfolio with momentum in value added protein offerings. The chicken segment stood out, delivering 457 million in adjusted operating income thanks to higher volumes, better operational execution and lower feed costs. These gains were partially offset by increased marketing and promotional expenses. We believe there's still untapped potential in areas we can control within this business. Prepared foods saw growth in both sales and adjusted operating income. Our production facilities made significant performance improvement through disciplined operational efficiencies. Meanwhile, our innovation pipeline is evolving to better match consumer preferences and emerging trends. As a result, our prepared foods business is capturing more market share by volume and dollars, driven by innovation and targeted marketing spending that is showing measurable returns. In our beef and pork segments, we are increasing yield and revenue by developing more value added products such as seasoned, marinated and specialty trimmed cuts using portions that were previously undervalued. These offerings are reaching more consumers through our branded portfolio and we're also enhancing operational efficiencies in these areas. As anticipated, the beef segment remains our only soft spot. Cattle supplies are at record lows due to drought, potential herd rebuilding and the impact of New World screwworm in Mexico. These factors created market headwinds during the quarter. Despite these challenges, we're strengthening our fundamentals by prioritizing efficiency, reducing costs and introducing innovative products. This positions us to emerge stronger in beef when market conditions improve. Looking forward, we expect cattle supplies to remain tight as we move into 2026. During this period, chicken is likely to benefit most from changing consumer preferences both at retail and in Food Service. 2026 presents further opportunity for our chicken business. Chicken is an affordable, high quality protein and our innovative value added offerings position us uniquely to serve both retail and food service customers amid high beef prices. While we are not satisfied with our current beef results, our diversified business model continues to build resilience and drive profitability across the company. Overall, our financial position is strong with net leverage maintained at 2.1 times, a direct result of deliberate actions and disciplined capital allocation to fortify our balance sheet. While consumers remain cautious and selective with their spending, we continue to expand our market share in both volume and dollars. Protein remains a top priority for shoppers despite rising prices. Beef, pork and chicken are clear favorites, with consumers viewing protein as an essential purchase and continuing to buy meat. According to Nielsen data, food and beverage retail volume declined 1.5% over the 13 weeks ending in September. In contrast, our retail branded products grew by 2.4% in volume, significantly outperforming the broader sector. This growth was Broad based, highlighted by strong performances across several key brands. Hillshire Farm Lunch meats increased by 10.3%, Hillshire snacking grew by 12.5%, Tyson branded frozen value added chicken rose by 8.7% and Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage advanced by 1.6%. Our ongoing investments in innovation, wider distribution and effective marketing are driving growth and keeping us competitive, providing substantial opportunities for further progress. As more shoppers turn to the perimeter of the store, we are meeting their demand for fresh, high quality options. With Tyson Branded Fresh chicken volume growing 7.8% during this period, our retail branded products now reach nearly 72% of U.S. households, a rate that exceeds both private label and other branded competitors. Although private label sales are rising, their growth comes at the expense of other brands, not Tyson. As we continue to outpace the category of both volume and performance, we are committed to engaging consumers wherever they are, leveraging our brand strength to thoughtfully expand into new markets and opportunities. Our recent launch of Tyson High Protein Chicken Cuts, each offering at least 30 grams of protein per serving, has achieved nationwide distribution. This success confirms strong consumer demand for convenient protein packed options. Excitement for these products is evident across social media and at retail, reinforcing our strategy to connect our brands with consumers and deliver innovative ways to enjoy our protein rich foods. Hillshire Farm, long trusted for lunch meat, has now entered the freezer section with stuffed croissants and ciabatta deli sandwiches. These new additions offer consumers even more convenient, delicious and protein rich meal solutions. We're also seeing growing interest from Gen Z shoppers in the frozen aisle. Our latest offerings are designed to meet their demand for convenience, bold flavors and high quality. Sales from our innovation pipeline has steadily increased over the past three years. Our innovation spans all brands and segments, ensuring we address both current and future consumer needs. Tyson Foods is proud to lead the industry by developing products with simpler recognizable ingredients just like those found in your own kitchen pantry. We recently introduced our simpler product line, now available in stores nationwide. The preference for healthier options is clear. Last quarter we announced that by year end we will remove high fructose corn syrup, sucralose, bha, BHT and titanium dioxide from our branded products produced in the United States. As a world class food company and a recognized leader in protein, Tyson Foods is well positioned to meet the growing demand for high quality protein. In the fourth quarter, we welcomed Devin Cole as our new Chief Operating Officer. Devin has over 30 years of experience in food industry leadership across both retail and food service. He has a proven track record working with our largest strategic customers worldwide and most recently led our chicken and international businesses to significant improvement last year. Now I would like to invite Devin to share more about our segment performance.

Thank you Donnie. I'm excited to step into the role of Chief Operating Officer. Over the past two months I have taken a deep dive into our operations across the entire portfolio. My promise to you, our shareholders is clear. We will streamline our business by reducing complexity and bureaucracy, challenging the status quo every step of the way. Our team is committed to delivering best in class performance and holding ourselves accountable to our customers expectations. Now let's review our fourth quarter segment performance. Prepared foods delivered a strong quarter with sales up 3% versus last year or up 5.7% excluding the effect of the product recall, primarily driven by higher pricing because of higher raw material cost recovery while continuing to enhance our product mix. Adjusted operating income was also affected by the higher raw material cost and achieved a margin of 7.4% in the quarter. Despite the higher raw material cost, the full year adjusted operating income was up 1% reflecting continued progress on our multi year plan to enhance profitability in this business. Our fill rates, in prepared foods were the highest since 2013. This progress is a testament to the improved S&OP process and unlocked efficiencies in our plants and distribution systems. As Donnie noted, our retail businesses delivered the strongest volume and dollar sales growth of the year in Q4 according to Nielsen Syndicated Data, outpacing category performance in both measures. This has enabled us to better serve our strategic customers with greater consistency and reliability. This momentum in 2025 lays the groundwork for an exciting 2026. We see significant opportunities ahead to drive growth and improve profits. Our conviction in the multi year opportunity to expand profitability in prepared foods remains strong. In chicken, we delivered another quarter of solid top line performance with sales up 3.8% year over year. Volume contributed nearly all of the increase, including a notable contribution from value added product sales which also drove a favorable mix reflected in price. This is our fourth consecutive quarter of year over year volume growth demonstrating continued demand for chicken. Quarterly adjusted operating income for the chicken segment was 457 million, an increase of 28% building on a strong base from Q4 of last year. Our improved performance in chicken is a reflection of executing our strategy of operational excellence combined with a focus on innovation and customer satisfaction. We recognize that continued improvement is necessary and expected. Over the last year we grew volume, net sales and adjusted operating income. We have taken the necessary steps to stabilize the margins of a substantial portion of our portfolio by providing a high level of service during the periods of market challenges for our strategic customers, chicken is positioned to be the best value protein for consumers. As overall food inflation remains high in our beef segment, we continue to focus on the controllable aspects of a challenging and dynamic market. Sales and beef increased primarily due to a higher average price per pound, reflecting ongoing healthy demand. We continue to believe we may be seeing the initial stages of heifer retention. Any retention is likely to further restrict cattle supply in the short run before seeing more supply as we work our way further through the cattle cycle. A few years out, adjusted operating income declined versus the year ago period as higher cattle cost outpaced the higher sales from a strong cutout and resilient demand. Despite continued headwinds, we are focused on the pieces we can control like shifting further processing volumes back into our harvest facilities and tools to increase our ability to adapt to changing market dynamics. Import adjusted operating income increased 70 basis points or 63%, fueled by network optimization and operational efficiencies, leading to the strongest fourth quarter results since 2021. Sales were down 1.7% driven by a lower number of hogs harvested during the year. The lower volume was offset by higher prices. The access of raw material supply for our prepared foods division is a key part of our end to import strategy. We have made substantial progress in utilizing raw materials like pork bellies to support our brand of bacon, hams to supply lunch meat and trimmings to supply sausage. We will continue to push for higher utilization as it will improve access, quality and landed cost of our raw materials. Overall, I am encouraged by the incremental steps we have taken through the year, but I'm confident that we have room to grow and improve across the operational and controllable aspects of our business in 2026. Despite challenging market conditions, we are driven to focus on our strategic customers and consumers while delivering value to our shareholders. With protein remaining a clear winner in the mind of consumers, the diversity of our portfolio enables us to make investments by partnering with our strategic customers to drive category expansion. With that, I will turn it over to Kurt to walk through our financial results and outlook in more detail.

Thanks, Devin. For the fourth quarter, total company sales grew 4.8% to $13.9 billion compared to the prior year led by beef with solid contributions from pork, chicken and prepared foods reflecting the healthy demand environment for protein. For comparative purposes, the sales increase was calculated excluding the effect of a $355 million legal contingency reserve that was recognized in the quarter full year. 2025. Sales were $54.4 billion, an increase of 3.3% compared to prior year, excluding the effect of legal contingency reserves recognized during the year. Q4 adjusted operating income was $608 million, up 19% compared to prior year, driven by growth in chicken, international and pork, which more than offset the decline in beef and prepared foods. For the full year, adjusted operating income was $2.3 billion, an increase of 26%. Once again, the increase was driven by the record performance in chicken. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter were $1.15, up 25% versus last year and full year adjusted EPS was $4.12, up 33% from the prior year. Our multi protein, multi channel portfolio combined with our team's focus on operational execution in a dynamic macro environment continues to deliver results Turning to our financial position, our approach to capital allocation remains disciplined, deliberate and forward looking. We are focused on maintaining financial strength, investing in the business and returning cash to shareholders. Free cash flow is critical to us and I'm pleased with how cash has trended. Full year operating cash flow was $2.2 billion and capital expenditures were $978 million, resulting in free cash flow of $1.2 billion, well ahead of dividends which were $697 million. We ended the year with $3.7 billion in liquidity and net leverage at 2.1 times, an improvement of a half a turn compared to last year. If you step back and look at our balance sheet and leverage over the last few years, we've made immense progress in strengthening our foundation. With leverage continuing to decline and cash flow remaining strong, we continued share repurchases of $154 million during the quarter and we returned $327 million to shareholders through a combination of dividends and repurchases and for the year we returned a total of $893 million. While dividends remain our primary way of returning cash to shareholders at current Tyson stock valuations, we believe share repurchases represent an attractive opportunity. Our balance sheet remains healthy as we prioritize financial strength, our investment grade credit rating and cash management to drive long term shareholder value. Let's take a moment to review our outlook for 2026 as our accounting cycle results in a 53 week year in fiscal 2026 as compared to a 52 week year in 2025. The 2026 outlook is based on a comparative 52 week year. We anticipate full year sales to be up 2 to 4% year over year. We expect a rangee for total company adjusted operating income to be between 2.1 to $2.3 billion. We anticipate interest expense of approximately $390 million and a tax rate of around 25%. We remain disciplined in managing cash with CAPEX expected to be $700 million to $1 billion and free cash flow in the rangee of $800 million to $1.3 billion. Now, to provide more color on our segment outlook in prepared foods, we expect adjusted operating income between $950 million and $1.05 billion. We expect an improved level of performance next year as a result of improved operational discipline and strategic investment in our categories. We anticipate our adjusted operating income for chicken to be between $1.25 billion and $1.5 billion. We believe chicken will be the primary beneficiary of higher beef cost in the upcoming year. We also expect our operational execution to continue to perform at a high level based on the continuation of current variables of tight cattle supply conditions and the potential for heifer retention. We expect adjusted operating income in beef to be a loss between $600 million and $400 million. We anticipate adjusted operating income for pork to be 150 to $250 million based on our ample supply of hogs and with continued emphasis on the operational metrics of our business. Our international business has performed well in 2025 by managing controllable cost, maximizing efficiencies and lowering conversion costs. We expect adjusted operating income in international other to be 100 million to $150 million. Overall, I'm confident that 2026 will be another strong year for our company that covers our segment performance, financial highlights and outlook for 2026. Now I will turn the call over to Donnie.

Thanks, Kurt. In 2025, our team delivered strong results despite navigating a dynamic and challenging market landscape. These achievements are a direct result of our collective dedication and we look forward to building on this momentum as we move into 2026. Our diverse portfolio commitment to innovation, operational excellence and robust balance sheet empower us to allocate capital strategically and reinforce our leadership in the industry. We remain focused on meeting growing global demand for protein while delivering value to our customers, consumers and shareholders. I would especially like to thank our team members for all you do. Your unwavering dedication and hard work are the driving force behind our progress, propelling us toward even greater success and solidifying our reputation as a world class food company and a leader in protein. With that, I'll turn things back over to John as we begin the Q and A session. Thanks, Donnie.

We will now move forward to your questions. Please recall that our cautions on forward looking statements and non-GAAP measures apply to both our prepared remarks and the following Q and A operator, please provide the Q and A instructions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Ben Toiver with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Donnie, Devin, Kurt, congrats on a good finish for 2025. Picking up on the guidance on my first question, really on chicken 2025, you. Had a probably better year than even. Expected at the beginning. And now looking at the output, very. Strong, the 1.25 to 1.5 billion. Can you give us maybe your assumptions for that piece of the guidance as to the high end, the low end? That would be great. Thank you.

Good morning, Ben, and thank you for the question. In 2025, we did have a great year in chicken. Let me digress a little bit and tell you that, you know, what we saw in 25 is a result of what I would call setting the table over the past three years in our chicken business. You know, you may remember, and I'm certain others will, that we had our share of issues with genetics and hatch and capacity issues as we worked over the past three years, but we're now starting to see the fruit of our labor. But if I think about 202026 and some of the assumptions that we made in putting our guidance out there, we expect the operating conditions in 2026 to be similar to those in fiscal year 2025. In short, we expect it to be a constructive environment for us. USDA projects chicken production to increase approximately 1% in FY2026. We don't see a runaway chicken supply. In fact, I would caution against using September's numbers and obviously the commodity price impacts of that and as you do your model. But the 6% was the result of perfect growing conditions and environment. And that is now, you know, that has now returned to normal. And so we see a constructive environment from that standpoint. In terms of grain, we see stable grains. You know, you can, we're in line with forward futures markets. And then the confidence that we have in our chicken business is based on Execution and for us, execution across every one of our businesses is critical to us. And so if you look at those individual components of execution in our supply chain, we believe they are sustainable. For example, better yield. We're seeing some incredible numbers out of that capacity utilization. I talked earlier about some of the things we're growing the business, but at the same time, we've got a great footprint underneath us at this point. Labor utilization is really good. We have ample labor, productive labor. And our live performance is kind of a standout for us. It has been all year, but it was particularly in fourth quarter. And we're seeing some performance out of live that we've not seen in many years. And so we've made tremendous strides in operational improvements from live operations through the plant with room to continue to improve our performance. We're all aligned against. There is more to go do. We've seen commodity chicken prices move downward just like you have. And mostly because of the bird weight corrections that I mentioned in September of this year. We're somewhat insulated in our business, but we're not immune to commodity markets. And we also continue to evolve our commercial relationships with our strategic customers to build long term win win partnerships. This allows us to focus on jointly growing the categories and stabilizing our earnings and the collective earnings of us and our customers. Further evidence of that is in our fourth quarter. Our branded fresh chicken business in retail was up 7.8% and our frozen value added chicken was up 8.7%. These are volume numbers. And so we had higher volume and a better mix. We finished 25 with momentum in chicken and we've seen that performance carry through in the start of 2026. And we expect 2026 to be another great year in chicken. Perfect.

Very clear. Thanks for that, Donnie. And then second, real quick on prepared. Foods, looks like the finish was a little bit softer than expected. So first, what drove that? Was it input costs, maybe pork beef pricing? And how should we really think as we move into 26 on the midpoint, give or take, billion dollar outlook and the expected growth here. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Ben. Good morning. Let me first say that the fundamentals of our prepared foods business are very good. We did have a much better overall performance in fiscal year 2025 and that was really driven by, by growing distribution, optimizing our operations and winning innovation with strategic customers. You know, in fact, we are, you know, winning with consumers and we did grow both net sales and operating income by about 1% and fiscal year 2025. The volume gap the last year has continued to narrow each quarter. So we're seeing good momentum there. And you know, as mentioned, our volume and dollar share did grow at retail for the first time in two and a half years. The miss that you referenced, it was in fact driven by rapid rise in commodity costs. And our pricing lags just didn't fully have time for those to flow through in the quarter. For the quarter we had $135 million in commodity cost pressure and we had 344, I would point out, for the whole year. So not insignificant the operational excellence that I mentioned. It is occurring inside of all of our plants and it did really drive substantial volume value this year. And some of that was partially covered up by those higher raw material costs. We continue to have very good fill rates, the best since 2013. And so, you know, a lot of good things to talk about in this business as we go into fiscal year 2026, as we see those raw materials stabilize, we do expect to see volume growth, market share growth, and that's really driven by our world class innovation pipeline. Continuing work with the operational excellence that I mentioned and our customer partnerships, we will drive top and bottom line growth with our strategic customers. And I would point out that's not just in retail with much of the brand work that we talked about. We're also seeing strength and increased distribution with food service. So what we're doing is working. We're pleased with the resilience of this business this past year, but we also acknowled that there's more work to be done. You know, I am confident that we have the right products, the right team, the right customer relationships to achieve the metrics that we've laid out.

Perfect. Thank you very much, Donnie.

Thank you. The next question comes from Leah Jordan with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning. Thanks for all the detail today and great job on the quarter. I just wanted to switch over to beef. It came in a bit better than we were were expecting in the quarter. But you're still guiding for a pretty challenging environment in 26, which makes a ton of sense. Right. With herd rebuilding likely underway, I just looking at the guide for next year, maybe you could provide more detail on how you're thinking about the underlying cattle supply and costs as we move throughout the year to frame that view. And then I know you've made a lot of improvements on yields and the like, but what other opportunities do you have to mitigate the cost pressures in this business?

Sure, thanks for the question. So let me get into that, you know, in terms of heifer retention this is obviously something we've talked about for a while, but there are potential signs that there is heifer retention. What is a little bit different as we have a little bit better picture is we see regional disparity. For example, out west we're not seeing meaningful anything meaningful. In the south, you know, nothing there. But in the north upper Midwest, you know, we're seeing some retention. So you know, if I look at what data or what we see is, it's a lower percentage of heifers either being harvested in feed yards and then fewer feeder calves. Heifer numbers that harvest will need to remain lower for us to be able to say that heifer retention is sustainable. And remember, more heifer retention implies less beef in the near term. But to the second part of your question, so what are we doing about that? So with herd beef rebuilding, which we're all looking for, means supply of market ready cattle will fall before it increases in future years. We continue at Tyson to focus on the controllable and optimizing our business. Kind of the macro question on the table is this the continuing challenge of inadequate cattle availability that has been further impacted by cattle inflows from Mexico associated with border closure related to New World Screwworm? Our volume was down 8.4% for the quarter and 1.9% for the full year. So certainly having an impact. Even heavier animals, you know, they've helped but they've only partially offset the lack of cattle availability. In our guidance, the negative 600 to negative 400 is what we see relative to the market presently.

That's very helpful. Thank you for all the detail. For my follow up I wanted to ask about the Capex guidance. The rang next year seems somewhat wide and is notably lower than the typical level you guys do. So just maybe you could talk about the main buckets of what projects you're planning for next year. What are the variables driving that range? Is it anything timing related or has anything changed in how you're thinking about capital allocation overall?

Thanks Leah. Maybe start with just a reminder on our capital allocation approach and I made a comment this morning around that it remains very disciplined, deliberate but also forward looking. We're focused on maintaining our financial strength, certainly investing in the business as you asked the question on, but also returning cash to shareholders. And acknowledge the rangee that we provided this morning for capex for 2026 is 700 million to a billion dollars. I'll hurry on to remind everyone that across the last five years we've spent just over $7 billion in capex. We've invested heavily across our network. And that included a lot of capacity expansion during that time period. And where we sit today, we have the capacity to grow inside our existing network. Our rangee that we share today, acknowledging it's 300 wide, is really not that different than what we shared over the last few years relative to a range as we start the year. But that rangee is really going to is reflective of the pacing of the spend of our current projects, but also the timing of new projects that will launch in 202026. But the rangee does include both our maintenance spend as well as profit improvement projects that we'll execute across the year.

Great. Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Palmer with JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Good morning. I wanted to just follow up on the chicken commentary. You noted that you were insulated but not immune from lower prices. And we did see the lower prices in September at an industry level, especially jumbo cuts. I guess I'm trying to think through to what extent this flowed through in. 4Q and you still put up those. Results versus maybe there's some timing considerations. And maybe more of a call out. To start out the year. Thanks.

Good. Thanks for the question. You know, I will tell you that I mean we obviously considered commodity markets and giving our guidance, but the 1.25 billion to 1.5 I think is a good starting point for us right now. We've said that we think 2026 will be very similar to 2025. I think that's still true. I think that what you're seeing in terms of pricing that has created a concern. I referenced earlier, the 6% increase in supply in September. I think it's skewing a lot of information and some of the pricing you're seeing or very simply is just spot market or excess that was taking place at that point. I would remind you that demand is still strong and I believe that will continue in 2026. This is a data point for you. Breast meat pricing is the third highest in the last decade and we have stable grains. So it's a pretty good environment to be in. 202026 is looking to be another good year for us. And then if you look at in terms of the insulated, not immune, if you look at where we're growing in the value added and that retail and food service, that value added mix gives us the opportunity to put our the number one brand of chicken on the product. And so it provides some insulation. The fact that it's value added provides some insulation from commodity markets. So we believe our mix in our portfolio positions us well to be very successful in 202026. Okay, thank you for that.

In prepared foods last year at the start of the year, you noted maybe a little bit less seasonal than you might see in a typical year in. Terms of first half or second half. Maybe an update just on how you're thinking about 2026. Thanks.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, you're right. You know, FY25, I would tell you, was a bit out of balance from historical norms. And that really was due to the raw material pressure and somewhat unseasonality that we saw there. You know, as we think about what we can determine from FY26 currently, what the forecast look like, we do see FY26 being more balanced in that regard.

And so we might expect a pretty big bounce back here just to start.

Out the year to clarify, versus what we saw in 4. Q, we don't think so. Obviously we don't give quarterly guidance, but, you know, I think we've talked historically, you know, maybe slightly better performance in the first half. We shared the message last year being 25, that it would be more balanced given the operational improvements as they built throughout the year. And I go back to Devin's comments. I think this will revert, you know, closer to a normal cadence, but certainly acknowledging, you know, we did have the run up in raw material as we shared earlier, that impacted Q4 and that, you know, there's some level of that that was still in inventory as we finished the year as well. Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Alexia Howard with Bernstein. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Can I start with just a broader question on the key uncertainties for fiscal 26? We know the consumer is struggling a bit in the US Commodities are all over the place. Tariffs, I think, are less of an issue for you. But if you have to sort of. Prioritize the top two or three things that could go positively or negatively versus your forecast, what would those be?

Christina, why don't you take that?

Yeah. Hi, Alexia. Thank you for the question. As we think about the consumer, we definitely are seeing a continued divergence in incomes, with higher incomes continuing to drive growth and others reallocating some of their non food dollars to food categories. So we do anticipate demand for protein to continue. And we are really excited about the opportunity for consumers with our chicken being a preferred choice for value and for convenience. If we look at our census product portfolio, we have products that do cater to everyone, whether they're shopping in retail or our food service channels, ensuring that we can meet those Consumer needs wherever they may be. And as we remain positive, one of those reasons would be over the past year, 72% of households have purchased a Tyson Foods branded product, which helps demonstrate our strong market presence and our consumer trust. Additionally, we've increased our household penetration with younger consumers under the age of 35, which is a testament really to our ability to resonate with those new demographics. As Donnie talked about, we grew market share in our Tyson retail value added poultry and our fresh businesses. We also grew our market share with our prepared on a volume basis with lunch meat really being a standout with a 10% volume growth. So I'm confident that Tyson Foods is excellently positioned for growth today and into the future. Thank you. And as a follow up, it sounds as though you're fairly confident that the first quarter results in prepared foods will come through reasonably well. Are you seeing any impact from the delay and disruption in the SNAP benefit payouts as a result of the government shutdown, or is it too early to tell on that front? Thank you and I'll pass it on. Yeah, thanks, Alexia. I'll continue on on that. I think it's an evolving situation on the funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, so we are closely monitoring it. We do see consumer spending patterns again, you know, changing from non food to more food categories. But we feel resilient and well positioned to navigate those challenges, probably for three real reasons. One being our diverse product portfolio. We have a wide range of product offerings at different budget levels. And this allows us to meet the consumer needs whether they're price sensitive or whether they're looking for premium offerings. And really do believe that our chicken and our prepared products are both going to be able to provide affordable and nutritious options for families. The second reason is our brand trust and loyalty. We have three of the top 10 brands in packaged protein with our type in Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm. And then third, really our market adaptability. We're really committed to driving volume growth and so watching the challenging or changing market conditions, it's one of our core strengths. And so we actively watch what consumers are buying, their behaviors, and adjusting our marketing and promotional strategies in order to continue to drive our volume growth. So again, I feel really optimistic with our strategic approach, our diverse product portfolio and our strong brand loyalty that will help us continue to grow. Great, thank you. I'll pass it on. The next question comes from Heather Jones with Heather Jones Research. Please go ahead. Good morning. Congratulations on the quarter and thanks for taking my question. I wanted to start out with beef and I understand the normal seasonality of that business but given the volatility that we've, I mean pretty extreme volatility that we've seen in the cattle futures recently. Was wondering if we should think about the seasonality of Q1 any differently than normal because I think it was Q1 of 24 had some impact because there was volatility in the curve. So just curious if you help us think about that.

Sure. And thanks. Thanks for the question. You know, we're seeing good retail Demand here in Q1 of 26. You know, I think that from an operational perspective we continue to perform well. We're, you know, if you look at things like yield, if you look at how we're diversifying the mix into more value added and we have a pretty good supply right now in, in regions from, from a cattle perspective. But you know, we think 26, it's shaping up for us very much in line with what we built into our guidance. You know, we don't know. I mean there's obviously we should expect volatility. I think that's going to be the, the order of the day as relates to beef. But you know, but we have considered the current future cattle cost and the estimated pricing while expecting that volatility. And you know, could it be worse? I don't know if we could. Mexico and border closure and New World Screwworm and the impact of that. I mean that's pretty significant for us particularly in one of our plants in the region. And so we're just. We've given you the best guidance that we know how to give you relative to those dynamics that we're dealing with presently.

Okay. And then I wanted to had a clarifying question on chicken. So Donnie, it sounds like based on your comments that your guidance assumes more than normal seasonal improvement in pricing. You found September to be an aberration. So as we're thinking about 26, you're expecting price appreciation current levels higher than just normal seasonal. Am I, am I understanding your commentary correctly? Well, there's really about three or four points relative to that. But your assumptions are generally correct. I think the first one is that chicken will be very much in favor in terms of protein. It's the most affordable protein on the market and consumers are favoring that. And so that's one thing. The aberration as we talked about it in September, that is I think a point in time. I think there are physical limitations from an industry perspective in terms of increasing supply. I've seen some headlines that talk about runaway supply. I don't see that at all. In fact, my biggest concern today is with the supply of chicken that we have. Is the demand that we're going to have for chicken, you know, are we going to be tight and could we see a little bit better market? But overall, what gives me confidence is our level of execution from one end of the chicken supply chain to the other. I've been doing this a long, long time. I've not seen us but a few times be operate at this level as one team, one Tyson across our chicken business. And a lot of people deserve credit for that. And so think of my confidence, you know, being from the execution of the business. That never gets old.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

The next question comes from Puran Sharma with Stevens Inc. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thanks for the question and congrats on. Posting strong results there.

Donny, I wanted to start out by asking about something you said on the call. You said you've taken steps to. Stabilize margins on a substantial portion of the portfolio. Donnie, I think in the past you've mentioned just for chicken alone, we've seen. Somewhere upwards of a 500 to a $700 million self improvement. Was just wondering if you could give us an updated view on chicken. And also if you're able to, would you be able to provide a view. Across the rest of the businesses just. Because of the work you've done in. Prepared foods and in pork as well? Sure, I think. Let me, let me start with a few things here. You know, when we were sitting here a year ago talking about 25, you know, we said, or made a few commitments and you know, I would point this out, we did exactly what we said we were going to do in the year. We said we would continue to shift our mix from core protein to more branded and value added. We did that. We said we were going to increase household penetration in branded and value added and we were going to engage with younger consumers. We have done that. We told you protein would be viewed as essential by consumers and it is. We improved our returns on invested capital and creating shareholder value. We've done that. We told you we would execute with excellence in all that we do and we continue to do that. And you will see more and more of that coming as we move through 26 in Q1. We're off to a great start across all the businesses. They're very much in line with our expectations and outlook. So we feel very good about that. In terms of some program, I would tell you that the expectation, whether it's chicken, beef, pork, or prepared foods or international. The expectation is you be the very best, regardless of the protein, at everything you do from one end of that supply chain to the other. And also that makes us, from a corporate perspective, manage our costs so that what gets allocated to a business is more in line and realistic, is more in line with what a competitor of ours in that space would be. So there's a lot of pressure put on the spend side of the business with a lot of work done relative to determining whether every activity, whether it adds value or it creates waste and if it creates waste, we stop it. If it's something that a shareholder, a customer or consumer isn't willing to pay for, we're stopping doing that. And so that's kind of my view. I don't have a number to give you, but I would tell you using chicken, which was a little bit of what you talked about, but it could apply to the rest of the proteins, is we believe there to be significant upside and improvement across the landscape.

Yeah, maybe. I'll just make a couple comments relative to part of your question with prepared foods and pork, you know, I would just add on to what Donnie said. What he's talking about is really, you know, a multi year cultural shift that we've been on the journey of. And it's not just in the facilities, it's in everything that we do, whether that be in our, you know, our investments regarding our marketing spend, whether that be ourselves, self support or even things that we do here at the corporate office. It's about finding efficiency in everything. But to the point of prepared, we talked a good bit about that. Those plants do operate on a system of standards and not only does it help offset the inflationary factors, but it also provides us additional capacity without having to spend capex. We did see achievements in that area that exceeded our goals in FY25 and certainly see a pathway to have that Progress continue in FY26. And maybe just touching on port because we don't talk a lot about that. There has been exceptional improvement in that business in this year and see that continuing. They did improve their margins by 70 basis points and they did that through improved efficiencies and yield. They are capturing more revenue per animal. A lot of that has to do with the work that they're doing around special trimming, marinating, just typically adding value, you know, for our customers. But you know, a data point here is their cost per head and FY25 was basically the same as FY24 on fewer head. So very proud of the work that has been accomplished in the Port group and do continue to see that momentum in FY26.

Great. Appreciate the color there. Devin And Donnie, just for my follow. Up, wanted to maybe understand HEPA retention. A little bit better. You gave us some great commentary on the call, Donnie.

I think you mentioned retention happening in the north and the Midwest versus kind of in the west, in the South. Not quite seeing it there. Was wondering if you could maybe share. Some of the reasons as to here and why. Is it like, drought conditions better in. Those regions or are the economics better in those regions? Any color there would be appreciated. Well, thanks for the question. I think I would say that, you know, the situation we're in was largely created because of drought conditions and there were areas that were more harmed than others. And so in terms of this. And when I talk about heifer retention, it sounds like, you know, all the different components that are required to actually start rebuilding the herd and the impacts of that. But, you know, that lower percent of heifers being harvested, feed yards and fewer feeder cattle. I mean, calves. I mean, we're looking at all that and, you know, constantly. And so. But I think what makes this challenging to do is the data we get to see relative to what's actually going on. Because somebody could hold a heifer back for a short period of time, they may be taking advantage, for example, of cheaper corn, and they're going to feed that and put some weight on the animal, and then they may ultimately take it to harvest. So, you know, it's not. It's not. There's a little bit of flexibility around that, and rightfully so. That cattle rancher, they're trying to maximize their earnings through this, through this time period in these market conditions and certainly understand and appreciate that. But they're making those business decisions based on what's best for them, and we're just trying to react to what that looks like. Great.

Thanks again for the caller. Thank you.

The next question comes from Peter Galvo of Bank of America. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, Donny, Kurt, Devin and John. It feels like a Eagles reunion tour out here. So excited to have you guys all back together. Wanted to. Wanted to ask on chicken, and I know there's been a lot of discussion, but, Kurt, maybe you could just help us a little bit with the phasing of profitability over the course of the year. I know you don't want to give specific quarterly guidance. I am asking for it, but I'll leave it to your discretion in terms of how you want to Kind of help us adjust the profit expectations for the year. Yeah, thanks, Pete. Certainly, as I said earlier, don't provide quarterly guidance. I think, you know, certainly as Donny had illustrated earlier, there'll be a little bit of volatility as we're working our way through beef. But otherwise I think kind of normal, normal seasonality would play its way through each of the individual segments. Okay. And then I wanted to ask on prepared foods, and maybe this is a bit too granular, but on lunch meat specifically, there's been, I guess, a lot of different signals out of the different market participants. Some on taking price, some on being more competitive on pricing. In terms of promotion, it seems like there's, I guess, a lot of different strategies that are going on and again, it seems to be impacting a little bit the profitability. So I just, I wanted to understand what you're, what you're seeing in the market specifically. I know your results kind of speak for themselves, but whether the competitive activity out there in Delhi specifically has been, I guess, rational is probably the word I would use in your view, or if there's some other strategies that are going on that maybe are upsetting dynamics in the category. Thanks very much.

Yeah, thanks for that. This is Devin. Listen, it's worth repeating and I know you saw it in the notes and we've said it, but we did see strong lunch meat growth in the quarter, 10.3%. In fact, we saw, you know, some pretty healthy indications across several of our categories that would tell you that we're, you know, we have what today is a winning combination both with the price that we have in the marketplace, but also with the targeted map spending with our strategic customers. You know, I would say today we have more visibility from data that we, you know, we have and software investments that we've made in terms of what's working in real time and adjustments that we need to make, you know, if we do see changes with the consumer. But we are very focused on increasing our distribution and also making sure that we not only have the, you know, the right value for the consumer, but also the right products. And that's what makes our innovation pipeline so important. You know, 10% share is not insignificant in this dynamic area. But you know, I would just point out too, you've heard us talk a lot about this, but, you know, a large portion of our businesses pass through. It's got lags, you know, relative to our portfolio that's on a price list. You know, when we do face this sustained market based input cost pressure, we will you know, we will take take price action as needed and that's really just to make sure that we can continue to do those investments in our business.

Sorry, Devin, can you just expand a little bit though on competitive dynamics in the category? I think it would be helpful. Thank you.

Hi, this is Christina. So I'll speak up just a little bit on the distribution growth as Devin was talking about in Q4. Almost every one of our categories we saw distribution increases and we also had increases in our map spending from first half to second half and really getting to those targeted promotional spending spend reaching the consumer where they're at, whether they're shopping online or if they're shopping within the store. So we feel pretty confident about our continued success and we've been able to leverage platforms to get those insights real time and adjust and pivot. And so our commitment to growing is demonstrated by that continued investment. The next question comes from Girl Hurom. Paul Harris with Santander, please go ahead. Good morning everyone.

Thank you for taking the question. I just want some color on new working capital. If you could just share a bit of the details on the free cash. Guidance for the next year. So it seems that you both have some cash when expected. So if you could just give some. Color to us in terms of what are the lines that are impacting the most and how are you thinking about 2026 when it comes to working capital? Thank you.

Thanks. So our free cash flow for the year 25, very proud of finishing at $1.2 billion. And I think part of your question there was around the free cash flow expectations and working capital and a couple other elements. We did guide this morning to a free cash flow range of 800 million to 1.3 billion for 26. That's recognizing certainly the range of operating income that we shared this morning in addition to the range of capex. Obviously we don't share a specific working capital expectation throughout the year, but we did provide expectation relative to sales growth. So there likely is some, you know, inflationary move on working capital as we work our way through the year. But, you know, would certainly indicate a free cash flow that exceeds our dividend up to nearly a 2x our dividend rate for 26.

Great. And just one follow up here on the chicken business. If you could just remember us in terms of the exposure to the commodity market or if you could provide any color in terms of small chicken versus big, everything that you could give us in terms of color to the exposure to that spot market would be appreciated.

So if I understand your question, Right. It's our market exposure to Small Bird versus Big Bird. Right. Well, I would start with, you know, we, we obviously participate in, in both the Small Bird and Big Bird program. We have, you know, value added products in both, both Big and Small Bird. But in both cases what we try to do is, is to create, to align with strategic customers and create these win win relationships that grow our business and grow our customers business. And you know, we spend time doing that as opposed to arguing about what the price is or what the volume is going to be. Both of us collectively spend our time on growing the collective business for both.

But.

You know, in terms of Big Bird, Small Bird, I don't think I would want to tell you what percentage of our share of that is presently. But I would point out that our value added business, and when I say value added, I'm not just talking about chicken that is breading on it or that could be fully cooked. There could be value added, fresh chicken. And we participate in all that. But in this, in the year we grew our value added business two times, what we did commodity or the average of the commodity or the average of the segment, I should say. And so we feel very good about that. We told you we were going to do that in 24 and that we were going to do it in 25. I'm telling you in 26. We'll continue to do that.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Andrew Strelczyk with bmo. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to go back to specifically. To the fourth quarter check in performance.

And you talked about the growth on a strong quarter last year. If I look at relative performance to the industry, even adjusted for your price lags. Yeah, it seems like that took a step up as well. And I was trying to kind of decipher exactly or more precisely what drove that. You talked about LiveOps, but you've been talking about that all year. You talked about lower feed costs as well and some of the value add components.

So I guess how do you think. About what was the biggest driver there? Did you see a step function in. Your operational performance internally in the quarter?

Any color around that would be great.

Sure. Andrew, good morning. And you know, there's a lot of things that I could talk to you about relative that and I mentioned earlier that, and you well know this, that you know, for about three years now we've been, we've been working on our chicken business and really, you know, doing what is necessary to improve the performance. We have one goal Here it's very simple in our chicken business is to be the best chicken company in America, period. Anything that doesn't deliver that is or doesn't work toward that end, we obviously look at and see whether we need to be doing that. But it's better yield, it's better live performance. And in that live performance, you'll remember we had our share of issues with genetics as well, even our old genetics. We have new genetics, but we have older genetics that are actually performing at what I would call historical top end performance. And then we have an answer for big bird genetics that is flowing through the pipeline today. And we feel good about that as well. Capacity utilization continues to improve for us as a company. And we made some really, really difficult decisions, you know, two years ago, 18 months ago, around that. And then, you know, from a cost improvement, you know, we, we're attacking every element of this from a cost, from a spend, from a non value added activity perspective and, and then even to looking at what the allocation from corporate is into an individual business and addressing those things. So we're leaving no stone unturned with a clear objective, Andrew, of being the best chicken company in America. Okay, that's, that's helpful. And if I could just squeeze one more in. On beef, you talked about a lot of the moving pieces for 26 screwworm and heifer retention and demand and all the other things. The one thing I didn't hear you talk about was imports and that's been. Obviously topical in the news. How have you factored potential beef imports. Into the US into your outlook? And how would you think about that impacting your business? Thanks.

Well, we've obviously had imports into our beef business and that looks more like box lean. But those numbers, as you think about that, exports are down about 10% for us, Andrew. Imports are up about 20%. Australia is a big, big market for that and we're talking boneless beef. And most of which ends up in our grinds. And so, you know, in this, in this environment, you know, the consumer, yes, they're trading around in proteins a little bit, but even within beef you're seeing some trade from muscle cuts into grinds and the grind demand is very strong.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Donnie King for any closing remarks.

Thank you for your time and continued interest in Tyson Foods. We look forward to sharing our progress with you next quarter.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.