Heinz earnings: How thick and rich were they?

Everyone loves ketchup (well, then again, I'm sure there are a few out there who don't). But should everyone love Heinz's (NYSE: HNZ) latest earnings missive?

I say the earnings were respectable, if not utterly spectacular, in the third quarter. The top line moved up a robust 14% to $2.6 billion in sales; operating income increased 8%. The bottom line, however, was, eh, okay -- $0.68 per diluted share for this Q3 versus $0.66 per diluted share for last year's Q3. A two-penny increase isn't a reason to party, I suppose. Then again, Heinz isn't one of those companies that inspire you to throw a party upon an earnings release. Like Hershey (NYSE: HSY), Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Kellogg (NYSE: K), and Kraft (NYSE: KFT), it's a consumer foodstuffs name backed by a portfolio of well-known brands that people gravitate toward every day in supermarkets across the globe.

Here's the thing about Heinz, however: it sports a yield of approximately 3.3%, and it is in the middle of a tight 52-week range. That is definitely an attractive situation for the stock. Heinz is being perceived as a safe, recession-proof play. I'm not sure anything is truly recession-proof, but I do think the yield is impressive, and I think that such a stock may continue to hold steady, and even outperform, in this environment.