Start here if you're new
what it is
Tyson turns cattle, chickens, and pigs into the meat and packaged food sitting in your grocery cart.
how it gets paid
Last year Tsn made $54.4B in revenue. Beef was the main engine at $20.5B, or 38% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 2.1% last year. Gross margin at 5.6% matters most because Tyson lives on volume.
what just happened
Tyson posted $14.3B of quarterly revenue, and the latest reported EPS beat the street by 3.19%.
At a glance
B+ balance sheet — decent shape, but not bulletproof
40/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
14.2x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
3.5% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
8.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 48/100 — below average
What they do
Tyson turns cattle, chickens, and pigs into the meat and packaged food sitting in your grocery cart.
You do not casually replace a supplier that moves beef, chicken, pork, and branded food at Tyson's scale. Walmart alone was 18.7% of fiscal 2025 sales, and exports were 8.8%, which tells you Tyson sits deep inside giant food supply chains. Scale matters here because pennies in margin on $54.4 billion of sales still become real money.
How they make money
$54.4B
annual revenue · their business grew +2.1% last year
Beef
$20.5B
Chicken
$15.8B
Prepared Foods
$10.4B
Pork
$5.8B
International/Other
$1.9B
The products that matter
commodity beef processing
Beef
$20.0B · 36.8% of revenue
It is the biggest segment by sales, but the full-year operating result was a $1.135B loss. Scale is not the same thing as profitability.
largest segment
branded convenience foods
Prepared Foods
$9.0B · +5% growth
This is the Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm side of Tyson. At $9.0B, it is smaller than beef or chicken, but it is where pricing power shows up instead of disappearing.
better business mix
high-volume chicken processing
Chicken
$18.5B · 34.0% of revenue
Chicken generated a $1.427B operating profit while volume rose 2.6%. Right now, this segment is doing the heavy lifting for the whole company.
profit engine
Key numbers
3.5%
dividend yield
You are getting paid 3.5% in cash while the company tries to lift returns from an 8.0% operating margin and a 3.6% net margin.
$7.9B
long-term debt
Debt equals 28% of capital, which is fine in calm markets and annoying when protein costs get weird.
18.7%
Walmart exposure
One customer drives nearly one-fifth of sales, so customer concentration is not a footnote here.
8.0%
operating margin
Jargon: operating margin -> profit after running the business -> so what: Tyson has little cushion if costs rise.
Financial health
B+
strength
- balance sheet grade B+ — solid but not elite
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 85 / 100
- long-term debt $7.9B (28% of capital)
- net profit margin 3.6% — keeps 4 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 10% — $0.10 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B+ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in TSN 3 years ago → it's now worth $10,520.
The index would have given you $13,920.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
beat estimates
Tyson posted $14.3B of quarterly revenue, and the latest reported EPS beat the street by 3.19%.
Revenue rose 5% vs. prior year on the latest quarter. The business still looks uneven because SEC-verified quarterly EPS was down 76% vs. prior year, which is what thin-margin food processing looks like in real life.
$14.3B
revenue
$0.97
eps
5.6%
gross margin
the number that mattered
Gross margin at 5.6% matters most because Tyson lives on volume, so even a small margin move changes earnings fast.
-
fiscal 2025 (ended september 27th) was a challenging, but still profitable year for tyson foods.
-
the meat processor posted adjusted non-gaap earnings per share of $4.12.
-
that figure easily exceeded our forecast of $3.85 and was up 33%, vs. prior year.
-
it was a tale of two cities for tyson during the 12-month period.the beef segment posted a full-year operating loss of $1.135 billion, while the chicken operation generated an operating profit of $1.427 billion.
-
chicken volume was up 2.6%, more than offsetting respective volume declines of 1.9% and 1.7% for the beef and pork segments.solid performances from the prepared foods and international units helped too and also spoke volumes about the benefits of tyson’s multi-protein, multi-channel portfolio of products.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
Tyson's biggest risk is margin collapse in commodity protein. You do not need a recession or scandal for this story to break. You just need another bad spread in beef or chicken.
high
Beef losses stay ugly
Beef produced $20.0B of revenue and still posted a $1.135B operating loss. That is not a rounding error. It is a segment problem.
If that hole does not narrow, the rest of the portfolio keeps subsidizing the largest part of the business.
med
Customer concentration
Walmart represents nearly one in five sales dollars. That is scale, but it is also bargaining power sitting on the other side of the table.
A price concession to keep that shelf space would hit margins first and show up in earnings fast.
med
Thin-margin math
Gross margin was 5.6% and operating margin was 6.2%. Those are thin cushions for a company moving $54.4B of perishable product.
A 1-point margin hit on $54.4B of revenue is roughly $544M of pressure. That's the danger of low-margin scale.
med
Dividend comfort turns into false comfort
The 3.5% yield looks steady, but quarterly EPS already fell to $0.24. Income matters less if earnings keep falling underneath it.
You are collecting yield from a business with a 2.5% net margin. The cushion is real. It is not thick.
A 3.5% yield does not offset a business where the biggest segment lost $1.135B and a 1-point margin squeeze can erase about $544M.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
beef margin repair
The biggest segment lost $1.135B last year. If that number does not improve, the turnaround story is still just a story.
trend
Prepared Foods mix
Prepared Foods grew 5% and sits at $9.0B. You want more growth from the branded side and less dependence on commodity spreads.
risk
margin cushion
Gross margin was 5.6%. That leaves little room for feed, freight, labor, or pricing mistakes.
earnings
quarterly EPS stability
Full-year EPS beat at $4.12, but the latest quarter fell to $0.24. Next earnings need to look less dramatic.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
below average
outlook rank 4 — in human-speak, analysts expect TSN to lag most stocks in the near term.
risk profile
average
risk rank 3 — this is not a bunker stock, but it is not a chaos stock either.
chart momentum
below average
momentum rank 4 — the chart says investors still want proof before paying up.
earnings predictability
40 / 100
Earnings predictability is low. Translation: quarterly numbers are more swingy than the average large-cap staple.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 412 buyers vs. 373 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.2B shares. net buying for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$49
$82
$59
current price
$66
target midpoint · +13% from current · 3-5yr high: $105 (+80% · 18% ann'l return)
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