(Reuters) - Campbell Soup Co (N:CPB) on Friday reported a 2 percent drop in organic net sales in its second quarter as a key customer in North America placed fewer orders for its canned soups.
Shares of the world's biggest soup maker fell 2.1 percent to $46.70 in premarket trading.
Fewer orders from Walmart Inc (N:WMT) have weighed on Campbell's earnings in the reported quarter and could be a major reason for a decline in sales of canned soups in the U.S., RBC Capital Markets analyst David Palmer wrote in a pre-earnings note.
Organic sales in the company's Americas simple meals and beverages unit, which make canned soups and V8 juices, fell 4 percent.
Still, the company reported net sales that beat estimates marginally helped by a rise in demand for its Pepperidge Farm Snacks.
Net earnings attributable to the company rose to $285 million, or 95 cents per share, in the second quarter ended Jan. 28, from $101 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.
The reported quarter benefited from a $124 million gain related to the overhaul of the U.S. tax code.
Excluding items, the company earned $1 per share on net sales of $2.18 billion.
Analysts on average had expected the company to earn 81 cents per share on revenue of $2.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.