- Kraft Heinz sank as much as 16% on Thursday — marking a record intraday low — after its delayed quarterly report missed sales estimates.
- The company also highlighted $1.2 billion in business write-downs.
- "The level of decline we experienced in the first half of this year is nothing we should find acceptable moving forward," Kraft's CEO said in a Thursday statement.
- Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 27% of Kraft, told reporters in May that "there's something going on" with Kraft's finances.
- Watch Kraft Heinz trade live here.
Kraft Heinz plummeted as much as 16% in early Thursday trading after it reported disappointing quarterly earnings and announced $1.2 billion in charges. That marked the lowest intraday level for the stock since the company was formed in 2015.
The company reported a large decline in sales for the first half of the year. It also said in a filing on Thursday that it was adjusting the value of some business units, shifting their combined values down by about $1.2 billion.
It said that it wrote down the value of its eastern emerging-markets, Brazil, United States refrigerated, and Latin America exports units by about $744 million and that it cut the value of "certain intangible assets" by $474 million "to reflect the markets' perceived risk in the company's valuation."
"The level of decline we experienced in the first half of this year is nothing we should find acceptable moving forward," Kraft CEO Miguel Patricio said in a statement. "We have significant work ahead of us to set our strategic priorities and change the trajectory of our business."
Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns a 27% stake in Kraft, told reporters in May that "there's something going on" with Kraft's finances and that it was in a dispute with its auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Kraft Heinz was subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier in 2019 as part of an investigation into its accounting methods. Though Kraft said in June that it completed an internal review of its procurement practices, it noted that the SEC investigation wasn't over.
Kraft Heinz is now down roughly 38% year-to-date.
The company has three "buy" ratings, 16 "hold" ratings, and four "sell" ratings from analysts, with a consensus price target of $34 per share, according to Bloomberg data.
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