Alongside those coronavirus prep bags being filled by shoppers with bleach and hand sanitizer may be boxes of long shelf life Twinkies and Ding Dongs.<\/p>\n
We are seeing that, Hostess Brands CEO Andy Callahan said on Yahoo Finances On the Move, when asked if he is seeing a bump in business as people stock up, should they be trapped at home due to the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n
Added Callahan, We are benefiting likely in the short-term due to traffic. Thats the great thing about Hostess, we are there to celebrate things. We are there to comfort things. So we are seeing a slight uptick in traffic. Its too early to tell, a lot of our point of sale data lags.<\/p>\n
Even without the bump in business, Hostess has been doing just fine.<\/p>\n
Fourth quarter sales rose 6.7% from the prior year to $216.7 million on the back of momentum for breakfast items such as Donettes. Adjusted operating profits increased 6.3% year-over-year to $52.4 million.<\/p>\n
Hostess Twinkie snack cakes and Donettes are on display at a store.. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Hostess shares are up 8% over the past year, outperforming the Dows slight gain and the S&Ps 500 7.5% gain. Since joining Hostess as CEO in 2018, Callahan has looked to streamline the business, ramp up product innovation. He also pulled the trigger on the $320 million acquisition of cookie maker Voortman.<\/p>\n
Hostess has been increasingly improving its base for improved go-forward revenue growth first, with Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo out of bankruptcy; and now, with Andy Callahan as CEO. Were simply in late stage two of an operational turnaround, which we like, wrote Jefferies analyst Rob Dickerson in a note to clients.<\/p>\n
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
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Coronavirus outbreak may have unleashed panic buying of Hostess Twinkies and Ding Dongs - Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alongside those coronavirus prep bags being filled by shoppers with bleach and hand sanitizer may be boxes of long shelf life Twinkies and Ding Dongs. Continue reading