Kraft Heinz pops on strong first-quarter report

Heinz Ketchup on a hot dog

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Shares of Kraft Heinz closed up about 4 percent Thursday, a day after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.

The firm that makes Heinz Ketchup and Kraft Cheese posted adjusted earnings per share of 73 cents on revenue of $6.57 billion. Analysts polled by Reuters expected the company to report earnings of 62 cents on revenue of $6.47 billion.

Kraft Heinz said cost of products sold declined about 8 percent to $4.19 billion in the first quarter ended April 3, partly because of lower dairy and coffee prices.

The company was created last July, when Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz merged.

KHC in 2016Source: FactSet

— Reuters contributed to this report.