You might not have heard of Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ: MIDD), but if you have eaten food prepared in a commercial kitchen, then you have used one of its products. Middleby Corporation manufactures commercial ovens, food warmers, and food processing equipment for kitchens in hospitals, restaurants, stadiums, military bases, prisons, and schools.

The company has been on an acquisitions binge lately, acquiring four smaller commercial food equipment manufacturers in the past two quarters. Despite the cost of these acquisitions, as well as the impact of a nine-week strike at one of its manufacturing plants, earlier this month Middleby posted good 2Q 2007 earnings (pdf file) of $0.75, up 12%, beating Wall Street estimates by $0.04. The company posted net earnings of $12.5 million on revenues of $113 million.

Total net sales increased 8%. The majority of this increase derived from recent acquisitions, but the company also posted some organic growth despite a hefty increase in the price of steel, a major component in all Middleby products. The company is in the midst of introducing new products to restaurant chains, while discontinuing redundant products resulting from recent acquisitions. Operating income rose 4.6% while net interest expense decreased by more than $1 million, always a good sign.

As part of the strike settlement, Middleby won the right to ask for voluntary retirements from its union workforce. The company expects to incur $2 million in costs for this program during 3Q 2007. The stock has performed very nicely, opening the year at $106.49, then hitting a high of $125.18 in mid-June, right before the company offered a 2-for-1 stock split. The stock has already gained substantially since then, closing Thursday at $72.84. Several years ago, Motley Fool pegged Middleby as a small-cap winner. They were right on the money.

On today's STOP TRADING segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer was on the road on a back-to-school special and he was dismissing the "drop" today as almost nothing. On RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM), Cramer said it is going to $30.00 and he likes it (he interviewed the CEO recently too).

On The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD), Cramer thinks it is very consistent and it delivers. Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVAC) is another one Cramer likes.

On IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) Cramer said the quarter wasn't bad like the street thought. The buy side is right the sell side is wrong and he thinks IACI is going to mid-$40's. We noted last month that Barry Diller was one of the top entrenched CEO's.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) highlighted Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) ongoing options probe among its headlines.
• Federal Authorities are "actively" investigating backdated stock-option grants awarded to Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.
• The NYSE Group's (NYSE: NYX) New York Stock Exchange is planning a pilot program later this year that may bring real-time stock price data to investors via web sites such as Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO).
• The Financial Times (subscription required) highlighted Britain's announcement to pull troops out of Iraq as the U.S. adds more to Iraq.
• Siemens AG's (NYSE: SI) ex-CFO Heinz-Joachim Neuburgerwas named in a bribery probe.
• British Prime Minister William Blair is set to announce an Iraq troop pullout of 2,600 soldiers.
• Regulators in Britain say that stem cell work with animals may be legal, despite a proposal to ban on hybrid embryo experiments.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Economic Times reports that Reliance Industries may make a bid for General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) Plastics Operations.
• The Chicago Tribune reports that McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) may put its Boston Market chain up for sale.
• CNet.com reports that Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) has lost its top executive in China, Li Gong.
• Investor's Business Daily's "New America" column said that Middleby Corp (NASDAQ: MIDD) should profit from the trend away from trans fats with their new Rocket Fryer.
• BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column mentioned Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) and Thermage Inc (NASDAQ: THRM) positively.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: CDC Corporation topped today's modest list of initiations:

• Shares of CDC Corp (NASDAQ:CHINA) were initiated by Oppenheimer with a Buy rating and $12 target, as the firm expects CDC to unlock shareholder value by spinning off its software and games business into separately traded companies in the first-half of 2007.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• On2 Technologies (AMEX:ONT) was initiated with a Buy rating and $1.40 target at ThinkEquity, and the firm believes that On2 will capitalize on its continued success in Flash, also noting that Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) licenses the company video codec in its Flash player 8.

• Soleil believes Middleby Corp (NASDAQ:MIDD) is positioned to benefit from switching to more energy-efficient models in restaurants from the current equipment, and has initiated the Illinois-based company with a Buy rating and $134 target.

• Deutsche Bank initiated GPC Biotech AG (NASDAQ:GPCB) with a Buy rating; they believe shares could double in a best-case scenario.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).