Mondelez 4Q profit falls short of expectations

(AP) Shares of Mondelez International Inc. dropped in after-hours trading Wednesday after the maker Oreo, Cadbury and Nabisco reported a fourth-quarter profit that fell short of Wall Street expectations.

After splitting from Kraft Foods last year, the company also says it expects 2013 revenue growth to in the low range of its long-term growth target of 5 percent to 7 percent. But it raised the range of its guidance for operating income by 2 cents to between $1.52 and $1.57 per share to reflect more favorable currency exchange rates.

Kraft and Mondelez went separate ways so the companies could each focus on a more targeted portfolio of products; Mondelez took international snack brands while Kraft took North American grocery brands, such as Oscar Mayer, Jell-O and Maxwell House.

For the October to December period, Mondelez said it earned $534 million, or 30 cents per share. That's compared with $830 million, or 47 cents per share, it earned a year earlier before its split with Kraft.

Revenue fell 2 percent to $9.5 billion. On an adjusted basis, which reflects the spinoff, operating income was 36 cents per share.

Analysts on average expected a profit of 37 cents per share on revenue of $9.65 billion, according to FactSet.

Shares of the Deerfield, Ill., company were down 3 percent at $26.85.