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Earnings preview: General Mills expected to profit from stay-at-home diners

Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS), the largest maker of breakfast cereal in the U.S., is scheduled to discuss its fiscal 2009 fourth-quarter and full-year results tomorrow morning in a conference call at 8:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

For the quarter in which General Mills sold part of its frozen bread dough business and introduced additional gluten-free cereals, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the food maker to report earnings of $0.80 per share, which is 8.8% higher than in the same period of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be 6.4% higher to $3.7 billion. The company, whose brands also include Pillsbury, Green Giant, and Haagen-Dazs, topped earnings estimates in four of the five past quarters, but fell short by 8 cents per share in the third quarter.

Continue reading Earnings preview: General Mills expected to profit from stay-at-home diners

ConAgra only meets expectations, but is stock cheap?

Food processor ConAgra (NYSE: CAG), whose products share space at the supermarket with Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg (NYSE: K), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), is down in Thursday's afternoon trading by over 6% as I write this. The company released earnings for the fourth quarter earlier this morning. Sales increased 8% according to the press release. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations came in at 41 cents per diluted share. This result benefited from an extra week.

The per-share profit compared very favorably to the 18 cents earned in last year's similar quarter. However, in terms of analyst expectations, the performance was relatively unimpressive. Earnings.com indicates that 41 cents is what the market was looking for.

Continue reading ConAgra only meets expectations, but is stock cheap?

Heinz has a lackluster Q4

Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), whose supermarket colleagues include Kraft (NYSE: KFT) and Kellogg (NYSE: K), reported Q4 numbers earlier today. Can't say they were the stuff of a growth investor's dreams. Earnings per share came in at $0.55 versus $0.61 in Q4 of last year. The top line had trouble because of currency effects. Sales dropped over 5%. However, organic revenues increased over 5%. Unfortunately, volume decreased 2%. As can be seen, things aren't totally awesome at Heinz.

The company came in one penny ahead of expectations according to my earnings preview. Other sources say Heinz essentially met expectations. No matter what, management has its work cut it out for it in terms of offsetting currency woes and getting those volume stats on the rise.

Continue reading Heinz has a lackluster Q4

Earnings preview: Will Heinz surprise the market?

Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) is set to report Q4 data before the opening bell on Thursday, May 28. How will the company do? And by that I mean, will it beat the earnings expectation?

In general, that's what the market looks for. Sometimes the market cares more about beating the analyst game than it does about profit growth. Might sound strange, but that's what you see from time to time. Of course, even when a company beats, it may not make much of a difference when it comes to price action (I'll get to that in the last paragraph).

I think Heinz will indeed beat on the bottom line. I'm going by recent history here. According to Earnings.com, Heinz is expected to report 54 cents per share tomorrow. The company went beyond the call in the first three quarters of its fiscal year. Why miss on the last quarter of the year? I think the trend is in on this one.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Will Heinz surprise the market?

Campbell Soup goes beyond expectations in Q3 -- buy/sell?

Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) served up a tasty broth of estimate-beating soup this past Friday. According to Trey Thoelcke's earnings preview, the market was looking for $0.42 per share and $1.8 billion in net sales. Well, according to Jon Ogg's coverage, Campbell delivered $0.48 per share and roughly $1.7 billion in net sales. So, revenues came in somewhat soft, but the bottom line was a success as far as Wall Street was concerned.

One thing Campbell investors want to look at is the gross margin. This metric tells you how the company is doing in terms of cost control. The press release stated that gross margin went up to an adjusted 40.3%. Last year at this time, management reported a gross margin of 38.6%. Pricing helped out, as well as efficiency initiatives. It's cool to see that Campbell can leverage price actions to propel its gross margin. It shows the power of its brand equity.

Continue reading Campbell Soup goes beyond expectations in Q3 -- buy/sell?

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?

J.M. Smucker beats in Q3, but there are concerns about guidance

J.M. Smucker (NYSE: SJM) reported earnings for Q3 on Wednesday. The company, which makes defensive-type products such as peanut butter, jelly, and biscuits, reported a net sales increase of 6%, once you strip away the effect of acquisitions -- most notably the Folgers purchase -- and the effect of foreign exchange. On an adjusted basis, J.M. Smucker increased its bottom line by 11% to $0.88 per share. This source says that management beat estimates by two pennies, although other sources, such as this one, says the beat was by a single penny.

Continue reading J.M. Smucker beats in Q3, but there are concerns about guidance

Michael Phelps loses deal with Kellogg

When the picture of Michael Phelps inhaling from a bong first began appearing on the internet, Mark Fightmaster wrote that "It appears that the sponsors are going to stand by their man, from Speedo to Parenting magazine."

Visa said that it had "spoken with Michael and he has expressed regret for the situation, has committed to being accountable and improving his judgment in the future [...] We intend to support him as he looks to move forward."

But there is a defector from Phelps' camp. Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) has elected not to renew Phelps's contract that expires at the end of the month.

Continue reading Michael Phelps loses deal with Kellogg

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

Would Michael Phelps's compromising picture mean less sponsorships?

Maybe you have heard, maybe you haven't. Olympic hero and NBC posterboy Michael Phelps got caught in flagrante delicto with a marijuana pipe at a party after the Olympic Games had completed. So, of course his sponsors are jumping ship left and right to distance themselves from this scofflaw, right? Wrong ... and somewhere, Cheech and Chong are smiling.

It appears that the sponsors are going to stand by their man, from Speedo to Parenting magazine. In fact, Visa (NYSE: V) came out Tuesday and stated that it supports Phelps despite his little misstep. According to Visa, the company has "spoken with Michael and he has expressed regret for the situation, has committed to being accountable and improving his judgment in the future ... We intend to support him as he looks to move forward."

Continue reading Would Michael Phelps's compromising picture mean less sponsorships?

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?

The week in preview: High hopes for MasterCard, Avon, Aflac, Northrop Grumman

If you've been watching earnings this past week, or if you read last week's Week in Preview, then this coming week may leave you feeling a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day. That is, again analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings declines to be more frequent and deeper than earnings gains.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW), Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), IAC Interactivecorp (NASDAQ: IACI), Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO), Elizabeth Arden Inc. (NASDAQ: RDEN), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN), Diebold Inc. (NYSE: DBD), Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL), ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT), and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) are scheduled to report quarterly results this week, and they're all expected to report double-digit declines in earnings.

But again this week, let's take a look who Wall Street feels may have done well in the past quarter.

Continue reading The week in preview: High hopes for MasterCard, Avon, Aflac, Northrop Grumman

Kellogg's looking at new cereal boxes

Looking back at the first month of the new year, I realize that the wife and I did quite a bit of "uncluttering": bags of old clothes donated to the local Goodwill, a complete makeover of the toy storage in the kids' room, a new home office, and a total restructuring of closets. Sound like fun to you? I know, it wasn't a blast, but the new space is nice.

Seems like cereal producer Kellogg (NYSE: K) is looking to help unclutter grocery store shelves and your cabinets by producing what is called a space-saving cereal box. Think about it, where do you store your cereal boxes? We have an older house with smaller cabinets, so the cereal boxes have found their way to the top of the refrigerator; however, Kellogg's new offering certainly seems as if it would work with our storage space. The shorter and fatter (which is how many people compare me to this guy) box will hold the same amount of your corn flakes or mini wheats, but with a smaller carbon footprint (Al Gore will certainly thank the company).

Continue reading Kellogg's looking at new cereal boxes

With a peanut-butter scare going on, how will Hershey fare?

It has not been a good time for me. There is a crisis going on in the Land of Peanut Butter. And if there is one thing I love (besides annual double-digit returns on my stock portfolio), it's peanut butter. You've certainly heard about the concerns regarding some Salmonella-tainted peanut paste. If not, you can check out this piece by Sarah Gilbert. The really bad part is that three deaths are possibly linked to the bacterial infection.

What health officials have advised as of now is to avoid products that use peanut butter as an ingredient. To show how bad this crisis has become, Kellogg (NYSE: K) had to recall some of its products that utilize peanut butter. Naturally, my thoughts eventually turned to Hershey (NYSE: HSY). After all, one of its flagship products is the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is one of the best confections known to man, and it is my favorite. Every Halloween I look forward to having an excuse for gorging on the product. So, is the wonderful Reese's brand safe to consume? Just as I thought, Hershey ended up tackling the topic. The company issued a press release on January 17 stating that items from the Reese's portfolio are indeed safe to consume.

Continue reading With a peanut-butter scare going on, how will Hershey fare?

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Last updated: July 10, 2009: 04:58 PM

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