Cal-Maine loses $58.6 million as conventional egg prices fall 59%; no dividend this quarter

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. egg producer, reported a net loss of $58.6 million, or $1.26 a share, for its fiscal first quarter ended August 29, against a profit of $199.3 million, or $4.12 a share, a year earlier, according to its results release filed with the SEC. Net sales fell 41.5% to $539.6 million from $922.6 million. Gross profit shrank to $403,000 from $311.3 million.

The shares were at $66.48 at 10:52 a.m. Eastern, down 3.0% from Tuesday's $68.55 close, according to Nasdaq, after trading as low as $63.50 earlier in the session. The Wall Street Journal and Seeking Alpha both led on the price decline.

The number behind the loss: price, not volume

Cal-Maine sold almost as many conventional eggs as a year ago. Volume in that segment slipped only 0.7%, but the average selling price per dozen dropped 59.3%, taking conventional egg sales down 59.5% to $201.7 million. The segment went from $168.2 million of operating income to a $71.0 million loss.

The quarter's less obvious problem is in cage-free and other specialty eggs, the business Cal-Maine has been steering toward. There, the selling price fell 10.7% while the cost per dozen rose 11.3%, which the company's 10-Q attributes to higher feed and production costs. Specialty income dropped to $14.9 million from $64.2 million. Prices falling while costs rise is a squeeze that does not reverse just because conventional prices recover.

Prepared foods, the unit Cal-Maine is building out, earned $7.8 million, down from $13.2 million, as pounds sold fell 19.3% during what the company called temporary production cuts for a capacity expansion. It plans to lift prepared foods capacity by more than 60% by the first half of fiscal 2028.

Why shareholders get nothing this time

Cal-Maine pays a variable dividend tied to profit, so a loss means no payout. The release goes further: as of August 29, the company must recover $94.5 million of cumulative losses before any future dividend under that policy. At this quarter's loss rate, that is more than one profitable quarter's worth of catch-up before income holders see a check. Cal-Maine did keep buying back stock, spending $14.9 million after quarter end, and held $767.6 million in cash and short-term investments.

The company gave no numeric guidance. Chief executive Sherman Miller said conventional pricing "remains under pressure from an industry supply imbalance." The 10-Q says 19.2 million layer hens and pullets have been culled for bird flu so far in 2026, but that the recovery of the national flock "appears to be outweighing the impact of depopulation."

Who gains: anyone who buys eggs by the case

The other side of Cal-Maine's loss is a lower food bill for businesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics average retail price for a dozen Grade A large eggs was $2.27 in August 2026, against $3.59 a year earlier and a peak of $6.23 in March 2025. That retail series is not what a wholesale buyer pays, but it shows the direction and the size.

At that $1.32 a dozen difference, a bakery or breakfast spot going through 100 dozen a week spends about $132 less a week than a year ago, or roughly $6,900 over a year. For a diner, that is a menu line where cost has eased while labor and rent have not.

605,380 independent restaurants are listed on CheckThisBiz, a directory of 7,704,724 independent US businesses, including 79,108 in CA, 54,058 in TX, 51,387 in NY. Chains and franchises are excluded from that count, so these are the owner-operated businesses that actually apply for funding.

The CheckThisBiz directory also lists 35,649 independent bakeries, the businesses most exposed to egg prices as a share of ingredients. Our restaurant operating playbook covers renegotiating supplier costs when a commodity moves this far.

Sources: Cal-Maine Foods results release (SEC); Cal-Maine 10-Q; Nasdaq; Bureau of Labor Statistics; The Wall Street Journal; CheckThisBiz business counts. The per-dozen savings example is our calculation. This is market information, not investment advice.