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ConAgra Foods (CAG), a company that produces packaged edibles for supermarkets and whose colleagues include Campbell Soup (CPB) and Kraft (KFT), didn't have the kind of quarter you look at and say, "Way to go, management!" It was a boring, steady kind of reporting period.
For the fiscal third quarter, total sales were kind of flat, down a minuscule 0.9%. Earnings from continuing operations on an adjusted basis rose 10% to 44 cents per diluted share. Compared to estimates, that 44-cent stat came in as expected, nothing more, nothing less.
See what I mean by boring? Don't worry, though, because if you head on over to the statement of cash flows, you'll find something a little more tantalizing. Cash from continuing operating activities over the last nine months jumped from roughly $430 million to $1.1 billion. Very cool.
With such strong cash flow, a shareholder would hope that something shareholder-friendly would be announced, right? Well, management proposed a share-repurchase program worth $500 million, to be executed over the next several years. We can hopefully take such a move as being reflective of confidence in the financial future of the business.
ConAgra didn't change its guidance for the full fiscal year -- yep, another boring part. However, going by that guidance and the current dividend yield of the stock, I'd say the company isn't a bad value right now. Those who have this name in a core portfolio may want to continue to use a dollar-cost-averaging strategy with the position.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.
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