Mondelez International, the maker of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, posted fourth-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates after cutting costs and raising prices.
Excluding some items, profit was 47 cents a share, the Illinois-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. The average estimate was 43 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Mondelez, which gets about 80 percent of its sales outside North America, is boosting output abroad as the stronger dollar increases costs at home and lowers the value of international revenue.
The company invested in a new factory in Russia last year and recently began building a $90 million plant in Bahrain. Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld also is hiking prices and working on a plan to reduce expenses by $3 billion by 2017.
“We raised prices to recover higher input costs, protect profitability and ensure the health of our franchises,” Rosenfeld said in Wednesday’s statement.
Fourth-quarter sales fell 6.9 percent to $8.83 billion, trailing analysts’ $8.93 billion average projection.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
