Cal-Maine’s Egg Boom Is Fading but Reddit Is Betting on What Comes Next

By David Beren Published Mar 14, 5:35AM EDT

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Cal-Maine is transitioning from a pure commodity egg producer to a higher-value platform through specialty egg expansion and prepared foods acquisitions, but the unwinding of the HPAI-driven egg price super-cycle is compressing near-term earnings as Wall Street projects a 36% revenue decline over the next 12 months.
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Cal-Maine’s Egg Boom Is Fading but Reddit Is Betting on What Comes Next — © J.J. Gouin / Shutterstock.com

The largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the United States, Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ:CALM) shares are up 12% year-to-date, a recovery that looks better on paper than it feels in the fundamentals. Retail sentiment on Reddit has surged to a score of 92 out of 100, firmly in “very bullish” territory, even as the egg price super-cycle that made Cal-Maine briefly one of the most profitable food companies in America continues to unwind.

The story of Cal-Maine is that of a classic commodity hangover as the company rode HPAI-driven egg price inflation to a fiscal year 2025 net income of $1.2 billion, up over 339% from prior years. However, once egg prices corrected, things turned around, and not for the better. In the most recent quarter, conventional shell egg selling prices fell 38.8% year-over-year, dragging revenue down 19.4% and net income down 53%. The stock peaked near $104 at the height of the cycle and has since pulled back, finding footing in the high $80s.

This infographic provides a snapshot of Cal-Maine Foods (CALM), highlighting its strong Reddit social sentiment score and key factors driving investor interest, including YTD recovery and strategic growth initiatives as of Friday, March 13, 2026.

r/WallStreetBets Finds Its Egg Puns

The dominant Reddit thread driving current sentiment is titled “All my eggs in one basket. This is the $CALM before the storm. Mostly YOLO, but with a lil micro DD” on r/wallstreetbets, accumulating 88 upvotes and 61 comments with debate running hot. The tone is speculative and contrarian: retail traders are positioning Cal-Maine as a beaten-down value play, not a growth story.

The post’s author frames the thesis directly: “All my eggs in one basket. This is the $CALM before the storm. Mostly YOLO, but with a lil micro DD.” The title captures the mix of humor and conviction typical of retail contrarian plays.

All my eggs in one basket. This is the $CALM before the storm. Mostly YOLO, but with a lil micro DD
by u/unknown in wallstreetbets

The bullish case rests on three pillars:

Cal-Maine carries $1.14 billion in cash with minimal debt, giving it firepower to keep acquiring and buying back stock even as earnings compress
Specialty eggs now represent 44% of total shell egg sales, up sharply year-over-year, reducing dependence on volatile commodity pricing
The $128.5 million Creighton Brothers acquisition in early March adds 3.2 million laying hens and expands the prepared foods platform, which grew 586% year-over-year last quarter via the Echo Lake Foods deal

The Real Costs of Cal-Maine’s Pivot

CEO Sherman Miller has been direct about the strategic shift. “Cal-Maine is systematically advancing a structural upgrade in the egg category from a position of strength. While the market has long viewed us as a pure commodity business, we are focused on becoming a higher-value, more stable earnings platform,” he said after the most recent quarter. As a result, analyst consensus sits at 3 holds and 2 buys, and the average price target is $87.75, with Wall Street projecting a 36% revenue decline over the next 12 months as egg prices continue to normalize. The forward P/E has expanded to roughly 20x, a jarring contrast to the trailing multiple of under 3.8x that reflects peak-cycle earnings. A looming DOJ antitrust inquiry into egg pricing adds legal uncertainty neither bulls nor analysts have fully priced in.

Insider activity offers little conviction: executives received equity grants in January but also executed coordinated share sales at $72.44, consistent with pre-planned 10b5-1 schedules. With shares trading near $89, well below the 52-week high of $120.67, the next earnings report will show whether prepared foods and specialty eggs are growing fast enough to offset the decline in commodities.

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About the Author David Beren →

David Beren has been a Flywheel Publishing contributor since 2022. Writing for 24/7 Wall St. since 2023, David loves to write about topics of all shapes and sizes. As a technology expert, David focuses heavily on consumer electronics brands, automobiles, and general technology. He has previously written for LifeWire, formerly About.com. As a part-time freelance writer, David’s “day job” has been working on and leading social media for multiple Fortune 100 brands. David loves the flexibility of this field and its ability to reach customers exactly where they like to spend their time. Additionally, David previously published his own blog, TmoNews.com, which reached 3 million readers in its first year. In addition to freelance and social media work, David loves to spend time with his family and children and relive the glory days of video game consoles by playing any retro game console he can get his hands on.