Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Matt Galvanoni: My initial reaction is, yes. I mean, I think we should be able to see some working capital benefits going forward, especially with where grain is going. It may take a bit of time to let that kind of fully get itself through inventory as such, but we are seeing that is definitely the direction where we’re taking, and we’ve seen that a little bit here in the fourth quarter. But as grain is starting to hit these kind of low four areas in corn, that is something that we’re seeing there also, Priy.

Fabio Sandri: I think also in terms of the inventories, Priya, we’ve been pushing a lot of reduction in our inventory, especially for frozen category. And we are seeing the overall inventories in the market also going down, especially on the dark meat, and that has helped the whole industry and helped our working capital.

Priya Ohri Gupta: Right. That’s helpful. So, I guess as a follow on and maybe building on one of the prior questions that sort of puts you guys in a little bit more of an enviable position when it comes to your cashflow generation, your existing cash, you’ve already sort of outlined the CapEx guidance. As we think about that cash that’s building, would you be able to maybe talk us through the scope to potentially increase some of those organic projects versus looking a bit more aggressively at inorganic opportunities, and how high of a cash balance would you be comfortable sitting on?

Matt Galvanoni: I think when you talk about the inorganic versus organic, Fabio had mentioned on the inorganic side, look, we want to grow our company, but we want to be very prudent relative to any type of acquisition that we do to make sure it’s completely on strategy and we’re paying a right and fair price for any type of acquisition that way. So, we’re certainly not excluding any opportunities for inorganic, but it’s something that’s got to be the right fit for us at the right price. Relative to organic, we have some capital needs that are out there. We’ve got opportunities to grow with our key customers. We are not going to – we’re going to be very – once again, I’ll use the word prudent again on those types of investments, but we have opportunities to be more on the organic side relative to that growth.

I don’t think there’s something that we look at as a cash limit as it relates to how high it can go. If there is a reason to do some type of buyback, we would consider that, but that is not number one on the list, as I’ve mentioned before.

Priya Ohri Gupta: Great. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you so much.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we’ll be concluding today’s question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Fabio for any closing remarks.

Fabio Sandri: Yes. Thank you, everyone, for attending our call. Our team faced exceptionally volatile market conditions throughout 2023. Nonetheless, they maintained focus on strategies of key customer partnership, portfolio diversification, and operational excellence. And these efforts were combined with the leadership mindset and commitment to our values. We elevated our performance and demonstrated an ability to drive profitable growth despite circumstances. Moving forward, we’ll continue to drive our strategies, along with an unwavering commitment to team member safety, as well being along with an unyielding attention to quality, service, and sustainability. Given our progress and efforts, we can continue to cultivate a better future for our team members and achieve our aspiration of becoming the best and most respected company in 2024 and beyond. Thank you, everyone.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s conference call. We thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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