Packaged foods company Hormel (NYSE: HRL) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales up 2.5% year on year to $2.97 billion. The company’s outlook for the full year was close to analysts’ estimates with revenue guided to $12.35 billion at the midpoint. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.40 per share was 12.9% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Hormel Foods? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free.

Company Overview

Best known for its SPAM brand, Hormel (NYSE: HRL) is a packaged foods company with products that span meat, poultry, shelf-stable foods, and spreads.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years.

With $12.22 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Hormel Foods is one of the larger consumer staples companies and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because it’s harder to find incremental growth when your existing brands have penetrated most of the market. To accelerate sales, Hormel Foods likely needs to optimize its pricing or lean into new products and international expansion.

As you can see below, Hormel Foods struggled to increase demand as its $12.22 billion of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue three years ago. This is mainly because consumers bought less of its products - we’ll explore what this means in the "Volume Growth" section.

This quarter, Hormel Foods grew its revenue by 2.5% year on year, and its $2.97 billion of revenue was in line with Wall Street’s estimates.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 1.1% over the next 12 months, similar to its three-year rate. While this projection suggests its newer products will fuel better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable.

These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE.

Volume Growth

Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (the number of units sold). While both are important, volume is the lifeblood of a successful staples business as there’s a ceiling to what consumers will pay for everyday goods; they can always trade down to non-branded products if the branded versions are too expensive.

Hormel Foods’s average quarterly sales volumes have shrunk by 3.1% over the last two years. This decrease isn’t ideal because the quantity demanded for consumer staples products is typically stable.

In Hormel Foods’s Q1 2026, sales volumes dropped 1.2% year on year. This result was a step in the right direction compared to its historical levels.

Key Takeaways from Hormel Foods’s Q1 Results

Revenue was just in line, but we enjoyed seeing Hormel Foods beat analysts’ gross margin expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a solid quarter. The stock traded up 6.1% to $22.25 immediately following the results.

So do we think Hormel Foods is an attractive buy at the current price? If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).