Smithfield Foods’ stock price saw a boost following the company’s March 25 release of its fourth-quarter and year-end 2024 financials.

It’s the company’s first quarterly release since its United States stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, though the financial data pertains to the company’s profits from the three months prior to the debut of its initial public offering.

Foods’ stock, which trades under the ticker symbol “SFD,” opened at a price of $20 per share on Jan. 28. It rose to a high of $21.79 on Jan. 30 and fell to a three-month low of $18.60 per share on March 10, but rebounded March 25-27 from $19.14 per share to $20.11.

According to the released financials, Foods ended 2024 with a $1.1 billion profit as of Dec. 29, up $1.17 billion from the $56 million net loss Foods saw at the end of 2023. The report lists an adjusted 2024 profit of $1 billion, up $766 million, or nearly triple the $258 million adjusted profit for 2023.

Foods defines “adjusted” income as excluding the effects of legal settlements resulting in gain or loss and transactions or events that are “not part of our core business activities or are unusual in nature.” Smithfield Vice President of Corporate Affairs Jim Monroe said non-adjusted operating profit, by comparison, is calculated using generally accepted accounting principles, which Foods is required to use when reporting its finances.

“We believe that adjusted operating profit provides a better understanding of underlying operating results and trends of established, ongoing operations of our business and that it is helpful information for investors,” Monroe said.

The majority of the overall profit is tied to a record-breaking $1.2 billion profit ($1.1 billion adjusted) within Foods’ packaged meats market segment, which is up roughly $102 million, or 8.7%, from the $1 billion operating and adjusted profit packaged meats saw in 2023.

It also includes a $266 million profit ($225 million adjusted) within the company’s fresh pork segment, up roughly $150 million, or 56%, from the $117 million operating and adjusted profit fresh pork saw in 2023.

Fresh pork and packaged meats, particularly bacon, are the primary functions of Foods’ North Church Street meatpacking plant, which ended slaughtering operations in 2021. Foods’ namesake town is also home to the company’s corporate headquarters.

The $144 million net loss (-$152 million adjusted) Foods reported for its hog production segment in 2024 reflects a $604 million to $612 million, or nearly 80% to 81%, improvement over the $756 million net operating and adjusted loss hog production saw in 2023. Smithfield Foods reduced its hog-farming footprint last year by deeding 150,000 sows to North Carolina-based Murphy Family Ventures and an additional 28,000 sows to VisionAg Hog Production LLC, both of which now operate as independent pork producers but continue to supply hogs for Foods’ pork operations.

The two transactions collectively reduced Smithfield’s hog production footprint by roughly 24% from 15.8 million hogs in 2023 to 12 million by the end of 2024.

In the fourth quarter alone, Foods saw $335 million in operating profit, or nearly a third of the annual total, a more than 100% turnaround from the $116 million fourth-quarter deficit the company reported for October through December 2023. The $335 million fourth quarter 2024 total reflects a $105 million or 45% increase over the adjusted $230 million profit Foods saw in the final quarter of 2023.

“We are excited to return to the U.S. public markets as a leading packaged meats company with strong profitability and a solid balance sheet to support our future growth,” Foods President and CEO Shane Smith said in a news release that accompanied the financial report. “In fiscal 2024, we delivered operating profit of more than $1.1 billion and adjusted operating profit of $1 billion, up nearly four times from adjusted operating profit of $258 million in 2023. This strong rebound reflects our resilient business model, led by another year of record profits in our Packaged Meats segment, our third consecutive year of profit growth in our Fresh Pork segment and a more than $600 million increase in Hog Production segment profitability.”

Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, had announced in January that its underwritten IPO amounted to 26 million shares of common stock valued at just over $520 million collectively. Shareholders of Foods’ Hong Kong-based parent company, WH Group, overwhelmingly approved plans to take Foods’ United States operations public in a Dec. 6 vote, marking the first change in the company’s structure in more than a decade of Chinese ownership. WH Group, then known as Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd., acquired Foods in 2013 for nearly $5 billion.

Plans to take the company public officially began with a July proposal to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, though the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, that Foods had begun working with banks on the plan as early as October 2023.