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.

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!).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) beat analyst expectations, and mine for that matter, when it released its first-quarter report on Thursday. Wall Street was looking for about 66 cents per share on the bottom line. Heinz delivered 72 per cents share, a figure that represents a 14% growth rate. This was achieved with the help of a 15% rise in top-line sales.

Management mentioned that organic sales were aided pretty evenly by volume growth and pricing strategies. Looks like brand equity wins the day yet again. People are simply willing to pay for their name brands. This isn't to say that generic, private-label items won't always be a concern for companies like Heinz, as well as competitors such as Hershey (NYSE: HSY), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and General Mills (NYSE: GIS). They always will be.

Heinz is proving to be one heck of a defensive business during this tough recession. The only segment where the company is having problems is in its U.S. Foodservice where sales and operating income declined. Not so surprising, I suppose, since some restaurants are having trouble getting patrons through the door. People may be willing to spend for Heinz ketchup in the supermarket, but if they're not willing to go to the local casual-dining hangout, then those places won't be demanding as much Heinz ketchup for their tables.

Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), famous maker of thick-and-rich ketchups and other foodstuffs, is due to report first-quarter results on Thursday. So, what might be in store for the company? Are we looking at a lot of growth for the bottom line?

Well, according to Earnings.com, analysts aren't looking for much growth at all. Last year at this time, Heinz served up 63 cents per share. Wall Street seems to be looking for three measly pennies of growth! Can Heinz beat the 66 cents per share that analysts believe it will report?

Looking at some past price history, I can't say that I'm overly optimistic that Heinz will beat the expectations by too much (if it beats at all, that is). Remember that consumer-products companies are having one heck of a time with inflation. Raising prices is key to survival, but those higher price-tags must be accepted by the consumer base.

Increased marketing spending also is important during times like these since many businesses want to see if they can capture some market share while the competition is hurting.

So investors will want to carefully evaluate the margins and volume of sales when Heinz issues its earnings release. This has been par for the course for businesses such as Hershey (NYSE: HSY), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), and General Mills (NYSE: GIS).

Kellogg

Net sales rose 11% to $3.3 billion. Earnings per diluted share were $0.82, which was one penny higher than analyst expectations, as cited in this Before the Bell piece. Considering that Kellogg was fighting inflation and significantly increasing its marketing spend to keep its product line humming, the 9% expansion in the bottom line can be looked upon in a positive light. Of course, the weak dollar did help the top line. Stripping out currency effects and acquisitions, the revenue growth was closer to 6%. Still, Kellogg is holding up as best it can, and although free cash flow for the six-month period was down 10%, there still were enough funds to service the dividend obligation.

Kellogg has reduced costs, raised its guidance, and initiated a new share-repurchase scheme worth $500 million that will begin sometime toward the latter part of the year. The cereal king thinks it will now do somewhere between $2.95 and $3.00 per share in terms of earnings. Those thinking of adding Kellogg to a long-term portfolio might benefit from waiting for a higher yield, maybe in the 3% area, considering how volatile the markets are.

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

Kraft (NYSE: KFT) had one heck of a second quarter. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. As Melly Alazraki reported in her Before the bell post on Monday, Kraft managed to demolish analyst expectations by delivering 58 cents per share to the bottom line, a number that no only represented a 16% growth but that was 8 cents better than what Wall Street analysts were looking for. Overall, net revenues soared over 21%, while organic-revenue growth came in at roughly 7%. Not bad at all.

Even with the hellish inflation of input costs dogging it, Kraft managed to engage a price-increasing strategy that not only defended the bottom line but helped it thrive. How could it do this? Brand power, my friends. Looks like investors underestimated that power, and the fact that people are willing to pay more for the things they love.

Of course, it might be understandable that investors would not be willing to credit Kraft and its portfolio with such earnings-beating potential considering that there's so much competition out there from generic brands and that fuel costs are eating into supermarket budgets. Yet, the numbers support Kraft's current strategies. Volume wasn't too negatively affected in my opinion, and the margins turned out to be just fine -- something investors love to see when inflation is out front every single day in the headlines.

General Mills (NYSE: GIS), arch competitor of fellow cereal seller Kellogg (NYSE: K), posted some good news for shareholders on Monday. In an otherwise gloomy day that saw the Dow remain below the 12,000 level and inflationary pressures still exerting a hold over the market, General Mills proved that dividends are at least one island of safety in a sea of trouble.

The company indicated that it will now pay an annual dividend of $1.72 per share. Previously, the annual dividend was set at $1.57 per share. This is a nice example of double-digit appreciation of approximately 10%. Based on Monday's closing price, General Mills' stock now yields a hearty 2.7%.

As a long-term idea, General Mills is certainly one of the best. As I observed with Kellogg, you can put this one on perpetual dollar-cost-averaging. However, with the stock in 52-week-high territory, and with prices for commodities, especially corn, still exerting a negative effect on businesses, I'd be a bit cautious about entering just now. Is it possible one might get General Mills closer to a 3% yield? I can't predict the short-term future, but my gut says that a pullback is inevitable. Even with cool dividend increases, stocks can return to the low end of a 52-week range at any point. Just look at Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and the recent pressure its stock has been under. And Coke is a dividend stalwart. Nevertheless, I am bullish on General Mills' future. Just watch out for commodity trends, and perhaps remain patient for better prices on the shares.

Disclosure: I own Coke; positions can change at any time.