JPM JP Morgan Chase and Co

Bob Evans Farms Inc. lowered most financial projections for the year, as sales remain sluggish, and the company wrote down $16 million it had expected to collect from the sale of Mimi's Café .

The Ohio-based company, under pressure from former Bear Stearns trader Thomas Sandell to spin off its packaged-food business, now expects to make $1.54 to $1.72 a share on $1.24 billion to $1.29 billion in sales. That is down from its earlier projection of $2 to $2.17 a share in profit and $1.28 billion to $1.33 billion in sales.

Stripping the impact of the note impairment, however, Bob Evans raised its adjusted profit projection by 10 cents to $2.15 to $2.30 a share, sending shares up 6% to $49.70 in after-hours trading.

Mr. Sandell, who in 2014 won a third of the company's board seats, has called for the business split, saying the packaged-food business could be valued at more than $1 billion, more than the combined company's current valuation.

The packaged-food division makes and distributes pork sausage and other refrigerated and frozen foods.

On Monday, Chief Executive Saed Mohseni didn't comment on the company's plans beyond saying that Bob Evans is working with J.P. Morgan "to review and evaluate potential opportunities." Mr. Mohseni said there is no deadline to complete the review.

Company officials are slated to discuss second-quarter results Tuesday morning.

In the latest quarter, net sales at its prepared-foods business rose 2% to $96.2 million.

Meanwhile, the restaurant segment reported sales of $219.8 million, a 4.7% decline from the year earlier.

Comparable sales, a key metric for the restaurant business that Bob Evans defines as sales at restaurants open for at least 1½ years, fell 1.8% in the most recent period, the sixth consecutive decline. Still, the decline was better than the 1.9% projected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Over all, profit fell sharply to about $218,000, or a penny a share. Excluding the note impairment and other items, profit rose to 56 cents a share from 42 cents a share a year earlier.

Net sales fell 3% to $316 million.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 05, 2016 19:15 ET (00:15 GMT)

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