Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), a credit card company that competes with Visa (NYSE: V), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), and American Express (NYSE: AXP), released earnings for the third quarter on Thursday. The company put analysts to shame by posting a profit instead of a loss according to an article from Reuters.

The projection was for a loss of 12 cents per share. Discover actually made 52 cents per share of profit, once you exclude monies received from an antitrust settlement. Wow, that's what you call being way off the mark! The disparity surprised me, so I went to our very own earnings preview to see what we were reporting for an estimate. Sure enough, it stated the exact same expectation for a loss of 12 cents.

Visa (NYSE: V), whose colleagues include American Express (NYSE: AXP), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), reported a Q2 profit on Wednesday that was surprisingly strong. On an adjusted basis, earnings came in at 73 cents per share. Analysts were banking on only 64 cents per share, according to Reuters.

Quite frankly, I can see the disparity between Wall Street's thinking and the ultimate reality. I mean, the economy has been bad (to state the obvious), and people aren't spending as much. This means that they aren't using their credit cards like they used to. Ergo, you might expect Visa to post a lower number.

This post is part of a seven article report -- Food for thought: Best bets in food & beverage stocks.

American Italian Pasta Company (NASDAQ: AIPC) has caught the attention of two leading advisors -- Dennis Slothower and Elizabeth Harrow.

Slothower, editor of Stealth Stocks has chosen the issue as his latest "stock of the month" while Harrow, an analyst with Schaeffer's Investment Research, has selected the stock as her latest "undiscovered gem".

Slothower explains, "American Italian Pasta commenced operations in 1988 and believes it is the largest producer and marketer of dry pasta in North America.

"Pasta is a great recession food. With the recession continuing to be a long and deep one, pasta is the ideal food to stretch the budget.

In a difficult economic environment, it is often wise for investors to consider stocks in more defensive and relatively recession-resistant sectors. And one such area is food and beverage stocks.

As the long-standing market maxim goes, consumers can pull back on spending for vacations, remodeling, and new cars, but they still need to eat and drink.

In that light, I turned to nine leading newsletter advisors who serve up their current favorite ideas in the food and beverage sector:

Visa (NYSE: V), the famous credit and debit card business, which competes with MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and American Express (NYSE: AXP), reported results for the fourth quarter on Thursday. I came away from them feeling pretty bullish.

No, it wasn't so much the numbers as it was the fact that the credit-card concern constructed a litigation settlement with Discover (NYSE: DFS). The latter had antitrust issues with Visa, and it was a part of the company's story that bothered me. Visa will pony up almost $1.9 billion to Discover to make everything hopefully okay between the two (for more about the settlement, check out Elizabeth Harrow's post). Most of the money was already set aside in a fund in anticipation of the settlement. That's awesome.

And as for earnings, well, Visa lost money on a GAAP basis during Q4 driven by the litigation provision. But on an adjusted basis, excluding that provision and other charges, Visa earned $0.58 per diluted share. That was a penny better than Wall Street expectations.

This makes the Visa story even more attractive than it already was. Honestly, as a long-term investment, Visa should be a winner. I know the economy doesn't rule right now, but I don't think there's anyone out there who believes that credit cards are going away.

"If you've visited a mall – or if you've ever bought clothing for toddlers – you might already be familiar with our latest Undiscovered Gem: Children's Place Retail Stores (NASDAQ: PLCE)," says Elizabeth Harrow.

In Schaeffer's Research, the technical and contrarian advisor explains, "The stock is on the ascent, but Wall Street isn't taking much notice."

"The company was founded in 1969, and is based out of Seacaucus, New Jersey. The retailing chain boasts a market cap of just under $1 billion. It is is a member of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, as well as the S&P SuperComp 1500, which lends the shares a bit of Street cred.

"The firm recently pleasantly surprised investors with its same-store sales figures. During May, sales at stores open for at least 1 year rose by 10%, compared to analysts' expectations for a gain of 4.3%. Total sales for the month galloped 19% higher for the 4-week period ended May 31.