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The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) is
a top food producer, offering packaged and frozen foods, seafood and dairy products to retail, foodservice, commercial product and international customers. Among the company's many brands are Hunt's, Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Van Camp's, Healthy Choice, Orville Redenbacher's, PAM, Slim Jim and Wesson. Major competitors include Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) and Unilever (NYSE: UL).
The company pleased investors late last month, when it reported Q3 EPS of 63 cents and revenues of $3.53 billion. Analysts had been expecting 41 cents and $3.20 billion. Management also guided FY08 EPS to $1.80-$1.85 ($1.60 consensus) and announced that it would sell the company's trading and merchandising arm to the Ospraie Special Opportunities fund and others for $2.1 billion.
The share
price popped on the news and has since been consolidating the gain in a bullish "pennant" pattern. Prices frequently exit pennants moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.
Brokers recommend the issue with two "strong buys", two "buys", five "holds" and one "underperform". The CAG P/E ratio (12.84), PEG ratio (1.58), Price to Sales ratio (0.88), Price to Book ratio (2.32), Price to Cash Flow ratio (9.52), Sales Growth rate (20.90%) and EPS Growth rate (70.27%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions hold about 73% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 500 Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $20.85 and $27.45. A stop-loss of $20.75 looks good here.
Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.
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