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TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this consumer-products titan has weathered the storm and should enjoy lower inputs. General Mills (NYSE: GIS) (Cramer's Take) hits another 52-week high. This company has been one of the great standout performers this year, just a juggernaut, even though it is a gigantic buyer of grains and a huge user of cardboard boxes and plastic wrapping. Plus, it needs gasoline to deliver product. Some of this move has to be attributed to projections of huge declines in raw costs. Those are going to happen, as we know from the commodities.
But perhaps it is worth noting that few packaged goods companies -- perhaps Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) (Cramer's Take) is an exception -- dominate and innovate as well as GIS does. It has always been one of the great brand producers and acquirers, and also a company that can take out costs better than anyone. When I compare how a Unilever (NYSE: UN) (Cramer's Take) or a Clorox (NYSE: CLX) (Cramer's Take) has handled the raw costs to how General Mills has performed, it is almost as if GIS is a pharmaceutical with no raw cost exposure whatsoever.
Stocks don't get to their 52-week highs for nothing with the market all the way down here. When we get the inevitable futures program that takes down everything, certainly not an unlikely prospect as it has happened every time we have gone up a great deal, this is the one stock you must bid on now that the commodity costs are also going the right way. Who knows how much money they can make; remember, it sells at only 17 times earnings, when more inconsistent packaged goods companies routinely sell at 18 times earnings.
Random musings: I know there are many people who hate gold on this site. I know that I am not a fan. At a certain price, I feel like I have to get comfortable with a gold stock. I just feel like I need one, although Freeport (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) does have a big gold component. ... Disney (NYSE: DIS) (Cramer's Take) is starting to react better after earnings. ... News Corp. (NYSE: NWS.A) (Cramer's Take) seems to be run for world domination, not profit. I like to own companies that are run for profit.
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RELATED LINKS:
Procter & Gamble Profit, Sales Jump
Cramer: Commodity Stocks Feel the Heat
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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Freeport-McMoRan.
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