Campbell Soup (CPB $32.80 -0.60) reported third quarter earnings of $0.56 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.52. Revenues rose 0.4% year over year to $1.82 billion versus the $1.81 billion consensus. The company issued in-line guidance for fiscal year 2012, seeing adjusted EPS near the upper end of $2.35-2.42, including a favorable tax rate, versus the $2.39 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The company also see fiscal year 2012 revenues at the lower end of flat to +2% year over year (approximately $7.72-7.87 billion vs. $7.69 billion Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.) For the quarter volume and mix subtracted 1%, price and sales allowances added 3 percent, and increased promotional spending subtracted 2%. "Although overall sales trends are improving, we are not satisfied with our performance this quarter. As planned, we focused our marketing efforts on increasing advertising and consumer promotion. We executed well in some businesses, delivering solid sales growth in U.S. Beverages, Pepperidge Farm and Canada. We did not execute as well in others."






