Aug. 13--Sara Lee Corp. took a beating Wednesday from investors after the packaged-food company's annual profit forecast and its fourth-quarter sales fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

Sara Lee's stock closed Wednesday at $9.72, down $1.08, or 10 percent. The broad market, as measured by the S&P 500 index, was up 1.15 percent.

Downers Grove-based Sara Lee, maker of such goods as its namesake bread and Hillshire Farm brand meats, recorded a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $14 million, or 2 cents per share. But stripping out one-time items, Sara Lee posted a 29 cent-per-share profit, besting analysts' estimates by 5 cents.

Still, the company's adjusted per-share earnings forecast for its new fiscal year -- 84 cents to 90 cents -- was less than expected. Sara Lee had profits of 82 cents per share for its fiscal year ended June 27, and some stock analysts were looking for 92 cents for this year.

Such guidance implies only modest profit-margin gains, said Alexia Howard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "We've seen very nice margin improvements at other [food] companies and I think people extrapolated that into Sara Lee."

The profit guidance was an issue on a conference call Wednesday between analysts and Sara Lee Chief Executive Brenda Barnes.

"We're not accelerating," stock analyst Tim Ramey of D.A. Davidson & Co. told Barnes. "I don't get that because we are seeing margin expansion for others in [Sara Lee's] peer group."

Barnes then told analysts that Sara Lee was being cautious in forecasting the economic recovery. In an interview with the Tribune, she said "everybody would like to see those [profit guidance] numbers higher, and so would I."

But Barnes added that she "sees continued strength in our brands, and I feel very good about where our company is right now."

Sara Lee's fourth-quarter sales of $3.16 billion were down 10 percent over the same period last year as the company suffered from negative currency trends. But revenues also fell short of the $3.27 billion expected by stock analysts.

And Sara Lee's 3 percent decline in fourth-quarter sales volume also likely played a role in the bashing its stock took Wednesday, analysts said. "The volume declines were notable," said Erin Swanson, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. "The results were weaker than what we've seen from other packaged-foods companies."

Barnes downplayed any concerns over sales volume. Compared to its peers, Sara Lee gets a disproportionate amount of revenues from its Spanish bread business and its household and body-care segment in Western Europe, she said in an interview.

Both of those units have been hit hard by recession in Europe.

mhughlett@tribune.com

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