Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN) shares traded higher Monday after the meat giant posted a mixed bag for its fiscal third quarter and tweaked its full-year sales forecast. The stock was up 1.90% at $59.06 at publication time, according to market data.

Earnings Snapshot

Adjusted earnings came in at 99 cents per share, right in line with what Wall Street had penciled in. Revenue, however, landed at $13.87 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $14.12 billion.

Sales were essentially flat year over year at $13.9 billion. Strip out a $98 million legal contingency accrual that was recorded as a reduction to sales, and revenue actually grew 0.6%.

Adjusted operating income rose 8% year over year to $547 million, with the adjusted operating margin expanding to 3.9% from 3.6% a year earlier.

As of June 27, Tyson had liquidity of $4.0 billion. Operating cash flow totaled $1.5 billion during the first nine months of fiscal 2026, while free cash flow reached $913 million.

Segment Performance

The beef business continues to be the sore spot. Beef sales slipped to $5.39 billion from $5.60 billion, as a 12.1% increase in pricing was more than offset by a 15.9% decline in volume. The segment posted an adjusted operating loss of $138 million, compared with a loss of $116 million a year earlier.

Pork, on the other hand, showed some life. Sales increased to $1.58 billion from $1.51 billion, driven by a 5.2% jump in volume. Adjusted operating income rose to $60 million from $50 million.

Chicken also performed well. Sales rose to $4.26 billion from $4.22 billion, reflecting a 2.2% increase in pricing and 1.0% volume growth. Adjusted operating income climbed to $488 million from $448 million.

Prepared Foods saw sales increase to $2.56 billion from $2.52 billion, but adjusted operating income dipped to $321 million from $334 million.

International sales grew to $601 million from $557 million, with adjusted operating income up to $48 million from $45 million.

Outlook

Looking ahead, Tyson narrowed its fiscal 2026 sales outlook to a range of $55.80 billion to $56.35 billion, compared with its prior forecast of $55.53 billion to $56.62 billion. The updated guidance still sits below the analyst consensus of $56.76 billion.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects total U.S. protein production—beef, pork, chicken, and turkey—to increase about 1% in fiscal 2026 from fiscal 2025 levels.

Tyson reaffirmed its expectation for fiscal 2026 adjusted operating income of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion, and for Prepared Foods adjusted operating income of $1.3 billion to $1.35 billion.

Chief Executive Officer Donnie King noted that the U.S. decision to resume cattle imports from Mexico is not expected to have a material impact on the company's fiscal year ending in September 2026. So while the border reopening might help beef recovery down the road, don't expect it to move the needle this year.