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Serious Money: Three stocks that beat the market

Despite what you here from almost all quarters about the market dropping ten percent or so, in what is deemed a bear market correction of our recent bear market rally, I will continue to buy into this market. Of course I will be selective, and as always be thinking long term. This has helped me substantially over the past ten months beating the market by a huge margin.

Keeping this in mind I examined my watch list for candidates that have been long term winners, and consistently beat the overall market using the Standard & Poors 500 index for comparison. The volatility in the market is certain to produce more buying opportunities.

Continue reading Serious Money: Three stocks that beat the market

General Mills churns out a great year

Food manufacturer General Mills, Inc. (NYSE: GIS) recently reported a 5% jump in fourth-quarter net sales. This resulted in a net income jump of almost 10%, from $185.2 million to $358.8 million. This translated into a leap from 53 cents to $1.07 per share, or an adjusted earnings increase from 73 cents to 86 cents per share. In the same period, sales increased from $3.47 billion to $3.65 billion.

Although most famous for its breakfast cereals, General Mills actually provides a wide array of home cooking products, ranging from the old-fashioned to the organic and from raw ingredients to fully-prepared meals. As such, it is positioned to experience massive growth as recession-plagued former restaurant customers start cooking at home and economizing home chefs move away from pricey prepared dishes.

The company is predicting that its 2010 adjusted net will increase by as much as 7%, a move that will yield a jump of up to 27 cents per share, from $3.98 to $4.25. For General Mills, at least, the recession looks like a fantastic growth opportunity.

Q4 profits double as you eat up General Mills

Profits up in the heartland; at least for General Mills (NYSE: GIS) as they doubled in the fourth quarter beating analysts estimates by promoting their strong brands to consumers as management understood well the economic headwinds they were facing.

This contributed to GIS income for the year making it into positive territory as it reported this morning that net income edged up to $1.3 billion, or $3.80 per share, from $1.29 billion, or $3.71 per share, in the prior year. Annual sales climbed 8 percent to $14.69 billion from $13.65 billion.


Continue reading Q4 profits double as you eat up General Mills

Del Monte's Q4 rocked -- buy or sell on the news?

Shares of Del Monte (NYSE: DLM) are up over 9% in early afternoon trading. And the volume is doing gangbusters business. The market is responding to the company's fourth-quarter results. The numbers did tell an overall fun story.

To begin with, revenues saw a big jump of 20%. As many news items have pointed out, price increases helped out. It should also be pointed out that the company's press release indicated that an extra week skewed things a bit. That's okay, though, it was still a good top-line performance. Earnings per share from continuing divisions came in at $0.35, which meant that Del Monte grew the bottom line by 75% (a couple elements affecting the perception of this profit expansion was a better tax situation linked to a positive change in California tax code and a $0.04 per-share transformation expense recorded in Q4 2008). Analysts said the company might earn $0.26 per share. That's a pleasant difference, isn't it?

Continue reading Del Monte's Q4 rocked -- buy or sell on the news?

Green shoots scenario: Krugman calls recovery

Summer is here and green shoots are popping up everywhere. Paul Krugman calls a recovery by September, a very fast turnaround for someone who has been very bearish. Taiwan exports hit a six-month high last month, sparking hopes that the electronics industry is set for a recovery -- a nice high multiplier economics shift.

Meanwhile, what's good for General Mills (NYS: GIS) is good for America and the cereal maker upped guidance, implying a bottom in consumer staples and that, at the very least, cutbacks in purchases of essentials reported in the latest spending numbers are overblown.

Alex Salkever is the Director of Research at Piqqem.com, a stock prediction and analysis community powered by the Wisdom of Crowds.

ConAgra beats estimates, sports a nice yield

Supermarket staple ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) reported earnings for the third quarter on Thursday. Wall Street was bullish on the company since the bottom-line performance beat the expectations of analysts. Shares of the stock closed up over 9% at the end of yesterday's trading session.

Sales increased slightly over 6% and net income came in at 40 cents per diluted share on an adjusted basis. That was good for an 18% growth rate on the bottom line. Market analysts were only counting on 36 cents per share. So, you can see why the market was excited.

Continue reading ConAgra beats estimates, sports a nice yield

General Mills misses expectations, sells off

Shares of General Mills (NYSE: GIS) are down over 9% in afternoon trading as of this writing. That's a pretty steep drop for a defensive name. The cereal maker's third-quarter report was the catalyst for the sell-off.

What happened?

Continue reading General Mills misses expectations, sells off

Earnings preview: Will General Mills top estimates?

General Mills (NYSE: GIS), a cereal manufacturer whose colleagues at the supermarket include Kellogg (NYSE: K), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), is all set to report earnings on Wednesday, March 18. This will be for the third quarter, and according to the following source, analysts are expecting $0.88 per share. It won't be an impressive performance if General Mills merely meets expectations. In the previous year's Q3, the company did $0.87 per share. Obviously, $0.88 wouldn't be much in terms of growth.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Will General Mills top estimates?

Campbell Soup beats in Q2, but it may not be that defensive in this market

Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) reported earnings for the second quarter, and while they weren't that great in terms of growth, they did beat Wall Street expectations. The bottom line came in at an adjusted 65 cents per share from continuing operations. Analysts were expecting 64 cents per share. I know, a one-penny beat isn't necessarily something to crow about, especially when Campbell grew income from continuing operations by only a single penny on a year-over-year basis. In this market, though, this is the stuff of dreams.

In fact, I bet Campbell's shares would have been higher on the news if it wasn't for the fact that the Dow is getting closer and closer to the 7,000 mark (and, please don't worry, we'll see a Dow reading that begins with a 6 before you can scream sell!).

Continue reading Campbell Soup beats in Q2, but it may not be that defensive in this market

Kraft's latest quarter shows that even defensive names are suffering

Kraft (NYSE: KFT), a brand that shares the supermarket aisles with General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Kellogg (NYSE: K), Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) and ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG), was hammered on Wednesday.

The company's shares were down over 9% at the close of trading. Kraft's earnings release may have began with a headline that said earnings were strong for the year, but the market thought otherwise. And so did I.

Continue reading Kraft's latest quarter shows that even defensive names are suffering

Earnings preview: Can Kraft process growth in Q4?

Kraft (NYSE: KFT), whose supermarket colleagues include Kellogg (NYSE: K) and General Mills (NYSE: GIS), will be reporting Q4 results tomorrow. Analysts expect the foodstuffs company to report $0.44 per share. Unfortunately, Kraft did $0.44 per share in the year-ago period. So the market doesn't think Kraft will grow the bottom line.

Perhaps that will work in Kraft's favor. With expectations so low, management has the opportunity to surprise to the upside. The company has a decent record in beating Wall Street expectations. Kraft certainly has brands that people like. However, things are becoming more difficult for the consumer. Layoffs are everywhere, and job security has taken a sabbatical. Kraft needs to convince people to pay extra for a package of Kraft-branded cheese or a box of Nabisco Ritz crackers when there are less-expensive generic substitutes available.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Can Kraft process growth in Q4?

General Mills blows estimates out of the water -- should you buy the stock?

General Mills (NYSE: GIS), a company that shares supermarket shelves with colleagues like Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg (NYSE: K), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), reported a very decent Q2 on Wednesday. According to Melly Alazraki's Stocks in the News article, General Mills really kicked the analysts and their estimates in the you-know-what. The call was for the food producer to yield $1.23 per share. Instead, the company delivered $1.36 per share. Way to go!

But, how was the stock received? After an initial pop, shares settled down. In fact, they closed only slightly up at the end of day on Wednesday, rising a mere 0.16%. I was a little surprised by the muted reaction when I saw the big beat on the bottom line, but I think the market wants to be a little cautious here. As this news piece points out, General Mills has some complicated hedging issues going on, as well as issues relating to competition from Campbell Soup and private-label brands. Campbell has been turning up the heat on General Mills. I'm not sure if the market should worry so much about the battle between Campbell and its cereal-making nemesis, but worrying about private-label competition is warranted. You know how consumers are: they want low, low, low prices. And once they get them, they want them even lower! Of course, General Mills' brand equity and advertising can combat a lot of that, but we are in a nasty era of worries over job security and the safety of retirement accounts. The negative wealth effect is in full swing, so supermarket shoppers may find less-expensive fare more attractive (honestly, though, if I'm used to a certain brand, it's difficult for me to switch to the generic equivalent, even in times of crisis).

Is General Mills a buy here? Well, it's certainly cheap for the long-term holder in me. However, the short-term holder in me says not so fast. My gut tells me this one will pull back. Like I said, the market is obviously in a cautious mood since it didn't see fit to reward General Mills with a more significant uptick on the close. And, since I feel it should have received a higher price on the close, and since it failed to get it, that tells me that it may trend lower from here.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Earnings preview: Is Heinz a 'safe' stock?

Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), whose supermarket colleagues include Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg (NYSE: K), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), will be reporting second-quarter numbers on Friday, November 21. According to AOL Finance, the call is for approximately $0.76 in terms of earnings per share. That would represent about 7% of bottom-line growth. That wouldn't be too bad in this market.

Whether or not Heinz can beat the estimates, it's hard to say. My opinion? I wouldn't be betting on such an outcome. If I were a shareholder of the ketchup company, I would just hope that management at least meets expectations. I doubt that anything in the report will make me say that Heinz is now a perfect defensive stock. Literally nothing is defensive; best thing you can do in this market is hedge yourself by shorting some of it via an instrument like the ProShares Ultrashort (NYSE: DXD) ETF.

Heinz wasn't too far off from its 52-week low at the close on Wednesday. Considering that consumer-products companies may have a tough time competing with generic brands on price points, it's going to be difficult to see how the outlook for Heinz will be anything but cautious at best. Investors will be tracking the changes in volumes and how currency affects profits. And then there's the gross margin. With energy prices down, that should in theory help the metric, or at least I imagine that would be the case.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Is Heinz a 'safe' stock?

Stock picks and pans for troubled times: Buy Apple, Kroger, General Mills

Wondering what to do with your portfolio now? If you have some extra cash -- and a brave heart -- this could prove a good time to buy stocks, since they've been pounded so mercilessly.

Some investors have made great money this week on terrific calls that could have gone either way. But these were mostly short-term, high-risk trades. I'd recommend individual investors stay true to the familiar mantra: Buy what you know, buy solid companies with healthy balance sheets and strong cash positions, buy for the long term and don't fret timing so much.

Throughout this week, BloggingStocks writers have covered many stocks that look like good long-term bets:

General Mills (NYSE: GIS): Jim Cramer thinks General Mills could "benefit from the big storm," while Steven Mallas said this one is "a great way to tackle the bears." Other picks Cramer offered alongside GIS include Procter and Gamble (NYSE: PG), Colgate (NYSE: CL), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Lowe's (NYSE: LOW).

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): It seems everybody likes Apple at this level. Todd Harrison, Cramer and Tobias Buckell all agreed. Douglas McIntyre thinks it could benefit from Palm's problems.

AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T)
: With the help of the iPhone, AT&T has been increasing its subscriber base at the expense of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Ivan Marchev said AT&T is a conservative income for the buy and hold investor.

Continue reading Stock picks and pans for troubled times: Buy Apple, Kroger, General Mills

General Mills: Hearty quarter, healthy stock

General Mills (NYSE: GIS), a company that is always in a fight with Kellogg (NYSE: K), reported earnings for the fiscal first quarter on Wednesday. The stock held up very well amid all the chaotic selling that gripped Wall Street on that awful day. And why not? You know the drill. This is a defensive name, people still have to eat cereal while the bears are knocking at the door, etc.

The quarter was pretty good. Sales increased 14% to $3.5 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased 19% to $0.96 (this excludes the effect of a mark-to-market valuation involving commodities). As if all that wasn't enough, there was a huge increase in net cash from operations. Last year at this time, General Mills generated about $21 million in operational cash flow. This year's quarter saw that metric jump over ten times to nearly $226 million. There was one problem, however. Capital expenditures and dividend obligations were higher than that number. I generally like to see operational cash easily take care of both those requirements.

Alas, it was not to be this quarter. That's okay. I think General Mills is a healthy company, and I believe it will continue to be able to pass along price increases to help fortify its bottom line. Guidance for fiscal 2009 was increased to $3.81 to $3.85 per share. The old outlook called for $3.78 to $3.83. And as for the cereal-maker's stock, it has been very, very strong. General Mills' stock was up more than 20% year-to-date. Over the last month, it's been up 3%. Heck, I'd take that, all things considered. It's not far from a 52-week high.

Personally, I think General Mills is a great way to tackle the bears that are patrolling the market, but I'd wait for a pullback. I'd rather look at the company when its dividend yield is a little higher than where it currently stands. If I bought now for a trade, I would definitely use a stop to protect the position. As I've said before, there aren't many safe bets in this environment.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

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Last updated: July 11, 2009: 04:17 AM

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