Campbell Soup shares plunge on lower outlook

Umm, umm, not so good. Campbell Soup reported a quarterly earnings improvement, lower costs and a slight rise in revenue.

Sorry, not enough "upside surprise" on the revenue, Wall Street said, and the food company's shares lost 2.4% to $44.06 in trading Monday.

Fueling the sour reaction, even though the company's fiscal third quarter earnings beat Wall Street forecasts, was an negative assessment from CEO Denise Morrison in a statement. She said the company's performance should have been stronger.

"Although I am encouraged by our 7% sales increase in U.S. Simple Meals, I am disappointed that our plans did not drive stronger sales results in U.S. Soup," she said. Morrison noted that the year-ago quarter was a tough comparison because the soup unit was up 14% a year ago.

In the quarter that ended April 27, Campbell Soup said it earned $184 million, which was 58 cents per share. A year ago it reported earnings of $181 million, or 57 cents per share.

Setting aside extraordinary items -- mainly a pension settlement -- Campbell reported earnings from ongoing operations of 62 cents a share, beating Wall Street expectations that were about three cents lower.

Campbell said it cut costs in the quarter to $1.68 billion, from $1.71 billion a year ago.

Revenue rose 1% to $1.97 billion. The Street had forecast $2 billion.