Why McCormick Stock Gained 12% Last Month
Shares of spice specialist McCormick & Company (NYSE: MKC) gained 12% in March, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The company reported financial results that were stronger than expected, which led to the strong performance for the stock during the month. However, it's still facing some challenges that will be hard to overcome in 2023, as we'll see.
McCormick stock performed in line with the S&P 500 until it reported financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2023 on March 28. Year-over-year sales growth of 3% in the quarter was better than Wall Street had expected. And it was better than the 1% year-over-year growth it had in its fiscal 2022.
However, McCormick is still working through some challenges. Higher costs have led to a deterioration of its gross profit margin. For perspective, the company has averaged a gross margin of about 40% over the past decade. But its gross margin fell below 36% in fiscal 2022.
Source Fool.com
