The family that founded the largest egg producer in the US pocketed about $320 million from selling part of its controlling stake in Cal-Maine Foods just weeks after federal investigators began probing an alleged scheme to manipulate egg prices that sent grocery bills soaring for millions.
The Adams family, which controlled Mississippi-based Cal-Maine for nearly 70 years, cashed out near the company’s all-time stock high after shares roughly doubled between mid-2022 and early 2025 as egg prices, profits and the company’s market value surged, according to the Financial Times.
The sale came after the Justice Department and 17 states alleged that Cal-Maine and rival egg producers coordinated bids and trades for nearly three years to artificially inflate a key benchmark used to price billions of eggs sold to supermarkets, restaurants and food-service companies nationwide.
According to company filings cited by the FT, the Adams family converted its super-voting shares into common stock in April of last year before selling nearly 3 million shares through an offering led by Goldman Sachs at $92.75 per share.
Cal-Maine also agreed to repurchase about $50 million worth of shares from family members, according to company filings.
The family retained stock after the transaction, and former CEO Adolphus “Dolph” Baker, the son-in-law of the late company founder Fred Adams Jr. remained chairman.
The transactions occurred after Cal-Maine disclosed in an April 2025 SEC filing that it had received a civil investigative demand from the Justice Department tied to a nationwide antitrust probe into egg prices.
Federal prosecutors said the company’s conduct stretched from June 2022 through March 2025, when executives at Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch allegedly coordinated bidding activity to influence daily egg price quotations published by Urner Barry, a benchmark widely used in supply contracts across the industry.
Cal-Maine has denied wrongdoing, saying egg prices were driven by bird flu and other market forces.
A proposed settlement, which requires court approval and contains no admission of liability, would require Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’s to donate 53 million eggs to food banks, pay $3.3 million to participating states and accept restrictions on communications with competitors.
The complaint cited a series of emails, text messages and phone calls that prosecutors said documented the scheme.
In October 2022, a Cal-Maine executive allegedly texted Hickman’s CEO, “We are bidding up. Let’s hold it today.”
After Urner Barry kept prices unchanged, another Cal-Maine executive replied, “No change.”
Two months later, Hickman’s CEO urged executives at Cal-Maine and Versova to post strong bids “early and often” before another executive wrote that “as a group we need to bid like they vote in Chicago, early and often,” according to the complaint.
Prosecutors also alleged that executives sometimes placed premium bids they never intended to fill and arranged private trades above market prices to influence the benchmark.
The alleged coordination continued into late 2024, when a former Cal-Maine CEO texted Hickman’s chief executive, “Let it rip,” according to prosecutors.
The companies then increased both the number of premium bids they submitted and the number left unfilled, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department alleged that benchmark prices fell sharply after the companies learned of the federal investigation in March of last year.
The Post has reached out to Cal-Maine Foods, Baker, the Adams family, Versova, Hickman’s Egg Ranch, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for comment.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
