Conagra Brands Q4 2026 Earnings Call: Complete Transcript

Conagra Brands (NYSE: CAG ) held its fourth-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call. This transcript is brought to you APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit for a consultation.

View the webcast at Summary Conagra Brands Inc. 0 target, enabled by a recent dividend cut, allowing for increased investments in brand building and supply chain resilience. The company is focusing on balancing margin improvement with volume growth, particularly in the frozen category, where significant pricing actions are planned amidst persistent inflation. Strategic initiatives include a $40 million increase in brand investment and $125 million in capital expenditures to drive supply chain efficiencies and productivity savings.

CEO John Brasi emphasized the need for portfolio simplification and prioritization, aiming to focus on high-growth categories like frozen and meat snacks. Conagra Brands anticipates higher price elasticities and plans to closely monitor productivity savings and inflation impacts, with a focus on maintaining competitive pricing. The company plans to hold an Investor Day in early 2027 to outline its strategic plan, including portfolio reshaping and simplification efforts. Capex guidance is set between 4-5% of net sales, focusing on supply chain improvements and modern manufacturing initiatives.

Management assured that the dividend cut would free up cash flow to help deleverage and maintain an investment-grade credit rating. Full Transcript OPERATOR Good morning and welcome to the Conagra Brands Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Q&A call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key then zero on your telephone keypad.

After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. We do ask that you please limit yourself to one question.

Please also note today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Nicias, Senior Director of Investor Relations for Conagra Brands. Please go ahead. Matthew Nicias, Senior Director of Investor Relations Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us this morning.

I'm joined by John Brasi, our CEO. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dave is unable to join us this morning but sends his regrets. So John and I will be taking your questions. We may be making some forward-looking statements and discussing non-GAAP financial measures during this Q&A session.

Please see our earnings release, prepared remarks, presentation materials, and filings with the SEC in the Investor Relations section of our website for descriptions of our risk factors, GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations, and information on our comparability items. I'll now ask the operator to introduce the first question. OPERATOR Thank you sir. And as a reminder to ask a question, please press star then one.

And once again we do ask you please limit yourself to a single question. Today's first question comes from Andrew Lazar at Barclays. Please go ahead. Andrew Lazar, Analyst at Barclays Great.

Thanks so much. Good morning and welcome, John. I guess my question would be, you know, even with the dividend cut, leverage is still expected to rise in fiscal 27. Given the business reinvestment needs both A&P and supply chain, you know as well as I'm assuming some volume deleverage impacts.

Are the balance sheet constraints causing you to not invest as much as you would have truly liked to this coming year? Or is your early work suggested that what you propose is appropriate, you know, with some flex built in as things rarely go sort of exactly as planned and you know, I asked because early investor discussion certainly seems to suggest many feel that the reinvestment planned at this stage looks insufficient. Thanks so much. John Brasi, CEO Hey, thanks again for the question Andrew.

As I discussed in my opening remarks, I really believe a balanced approach to capital allocation is critical to the long-term success of the company. 0 leverage target which is really, really important to enable the strategic optionality to reshape the portfolio over time. But it's also unlocking some meaningful investments in the business. In fiscal 27, we talked about the $40 million increase in brand building, which is a 14% increase, along with an incremental $125 million in capital.

It's really going to help drive supply chain resilience and also lower cost by moving more production in-house. I would say relative to brand building, I would call this a first move towards efficiency. We're going to continue to increase our investments behind our strategic growth brands to drive trial and preference. So overall I really do believe these are the immediate right investments.

But as you know, I'm still in the early innings here. I can assure you we're going to continue to look for additional opportunities to invest where we can accelerate our path to profitable growth. OPERATOR Thank you. And our next question today comes from Peter d' Galbo at Bank of America.

Please go ahead. Peter d' Galbo, Analyst at Bank of America Hey, good morning John and Matthew. Thanks for taking the question, John. I was maybe hoping to piggyback off of that question from Andrew.

Specifically your plan to stabilize and improve margins in the frozen business, which I think you're looking to do via some pretty significant pricing actions. But you're also, I think at the same time reinvesting. So I just think there's a bit of confusion around, you know, we want to grow margins in the frozen business, but also we