The Bark of Freshpet's Miss Is Worse Than Its Bite

Freshpet (NASDAQ: FRPT) picked the wrong time to fall short. The provider of premium refrigerated pet food announced at an ICR Conference presentation on Wednesday -- and then shortly after that via press release -- that its fourth-quarter results would miss its initial guidance.

Two months ago, Freshpet management anticipated that sales for all of 2020 would exceed $320 million. Give that it had already rung up $234.3 million through the first three quarters of the year, that would have required fourth-quarter revenues to top $85.7 million. Analysts -- choosing to take the over given Freshpet's recent history of offering up conservative guidance -- were holding out for an average of $88.4 million. But preliminary net sales for Q4 landed at just $84.5 million.

This isn't the time for investors to panic. If anything, it's actually a good time to watch the growth stock in case it dips on the news, and take the opportunity to buy into this disruptive company.

Source Fool.com