Consumer Staples

• Hispanic Consumers: An 'Emerging Market' in the US

  By Tony Daltorio - March 7, 2012 | Tickers: GIS, KFT, PEP

  If you're a consumer goods company based in the United States, you have a basic problem. How do you generate strong growth in a slow-growing U.S. economy? 

  It's a difficult problem, but more and more companies think they have found the answer. Food companies, for example, are increasingly setting their marketing sights on Hispanic consumers. These companies consider this segment of society as an “emerging market” of more »

• Procter & Gamble Goes on a Diet

  By Tony Daltorio - February 28, 2012 | Tickers: CL, PG, UN

  The world's largest producer of consumer products, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), is best known for popular products including Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste, Gillette razors, Pampers diapers and Head & Shoulders shampoo. But it is also known to investors as a stock that is little changed in the past five years, causing shareholders to pressure management to raise profitability. 

  The company is finally shaking things up a bit, announcing plans to more »

• Don’t Get Too Excited With Kraft’s Results

  By Tim Brugger - February 22, 2012 | Tickers: GIS, HNZ, K, KFT

  The good news for Kraft (NYSE: KFT) after Tuesday's earnings announcement is the food giant walked the Heinz path rather than those of Kellogg (NYSE: K) and General Mills (NYSE: GIS). In other words the company didn’t allow a tough commodities and North American market to curtail sales and ultimately profits. Those were the two culprits behind less than stellar news recently from General Mills and Kellogg.

  Kraft more »

• The Week that Was: Heinz, GM and Comcast

  By Tim Brugger - February 20, 2012 | Tickers: CVC, CPB, CMCSA, F, GIS, GM, HNZ, TWC

  If nothing else, President’s Day gives investors a bit more time to digest last week's stock price moves and get lined up for the week to come. Opportunities arose that included undervalued stocks -- and they remain so even after solid run-ups last week. One however jumped to a point investors would be wise to grab some profits.

  As mentioned in last week's article, Friday was a busy more »

• Heinz Bucks the Trend

  By Tim Brugger - February 17, 2012 | Tickers: CPB, GIS, HNZ

  On a day when it seemed the industry as a whole had nothing good to share with investors, along comes Heinz (NYSE: HNZ). An increase in revenues quarter-over-quarter translated to a nearly 5% jump in profit – not bad at all, especially when you look at what some of the other companies in the sector were grumbling about while HNZ was sharing the good news.

  The nearly 4% increase in share more »

• Kellogg: Still Not the Tastiest Snack

  By Justin Carley - February 16, 2012 | Tickers: CPB, DPS, GIS, K, SJM

  Kellogg (NYSE: K) announced the $2.7 billion purchase of Pringles yesterday, which follows the disaster at Diamond Foods. I agree with the consensus that this was a great purchase, especially when the company can issue debt at such low rates, and should yield incremental returns above the cost of capital. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves; the stock is still best left untouched by investors more »

• Kraft Has Certainly Been Busy

  By Tim Brugger - January 17, 2012 | Tickers: GIS, K, KFT

  If nothing else, Kraft (NYSE: KFT) has not sat idle these past several months. Investors will have heard the announced split between the grocery and snacks businesses. But either in preparation for, or in conjunction with the tax-free spin-off expected to be complete by year end, management is earning their keep.

  Here are a few notable deals and transactions, most announced in the last week or two:

  According to a more »

• A Cheap Stock for Patient Investors

  By Justin Carley - January 16, 2012 | Tickers: ESRX, WAG

  Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) was recommended by Oscar Schafer in the latest Barron’s Roundtable.  I have been watching this stock for the past couple of years as it continues to get cheaper and cheaper.  The stock broke above $50 a share in 2006 and now resides at $32.63 as of Monday.  I agree with Oscar’s recommendation that now is an ideal time to begin accumulating shares in more »

• Buy The Beer, But Not The Stock

  By Justin Carley - January 11, 2012

  SABMiller Plc ADR {"SearchTerm":"sbmry.pk","Matches":[]} tapped the debt markets today for $7 billion to fund the recent acquisition of Fosters Group.  SABMiller represents a good example of a great company and a bad stock. 

  The company is the second largest brewer in the world with annual sales exceeding $28 billion.  They have approximately a 15% share of the global beer market and own six of the top fifty more »

• ConAgra: The Best Option in a Strong Industry

  By Tim Brugger - January 9, 2012 | Tickers: CAG, GIS, HRL, KFT

  There’s a reason ConAgra (NYSE: CAG), along with most of its competitors, are at or near 52-week highs. The fact that people, and there are more and more of them, need to eat sounds simplistic, because it is. It also happens to be part of the reason ConAgra, along with industry leaders Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) and General Mills (NYSE: GIS), continues to reward investors with both solid growth more »

• 5 Cyclical Stock Picks for 2012

  By Tim Brugger - January 4, 2012 | Tickers: AA, DE, F, UNP, WHR

  A slowly improving economy, low price valuations and strengthening consumer spending numbers all point to a solid 2012 for cyclical stocks. Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments that 2012 is going to be another tough year, Europe will continue to be a drag and who knows how the Iranian situation will end up impacting global oil markets. Yada, yada, yada.

  As we’ve seen this past month, even the more »

• Did Barron’s Make the Right Call on Altria Group?

  By Justin Carley - January 3, 2012 | Tickers: MO, BTI, PM, RAI, KO, PG

  Barron’s is moving markets again.  This time it is to the downside with their recently published critique of Altria Group (NYSE:MO).  The shares are underperforming the S&P 500 by more than 4.7% at the time of writing.  Two weeks ago I strongly agreed with their recommendation on Coinstar, but this week I am taking the other side.  I don’t think Altria is a screaming buy, but if I was an owner of the stock I wouldn’t be selling it either. 

• Passively Achieving Your Goals With Options Part1

  By Nikhil Shamapant - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: AFL, HAS, KFN, PEP, PBR

  Part 1-Passive Strategies to Consistently Achieve Your Investment Goals

  Sounds like the perfect scam huh? That's why I added the word ‘passive.’ None of those penny stock pump and dump scammers advertise ‘passive investing.’ Why? No one looking for 1000% returns is at all passive about it. Actively managed portfolios tend to have higher goals for investment returns. Considering the fact that passively managed portfolios often don’t even more »

• Themes From the New High List

  By David Talley - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: VALE, DECK, SI, SVU, KR

  The new high and new low lists serve as important places to gather information about which trends and spaces are working and which are not. Looking over today's new high list, two themes become abundantly clear: dividends and domestic.

  The list is dominated by high-yielding companies (nearly half of the companies yield more than 2.5%) and dividend payers in general (only a quarter of the companies on the more »

• The Least Valuable Players: 5 Underpriced Stocks for 2012

  By Robert Coleman - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: ADM, AVX, BAC, C, GLW, JPM, LLL

  While the markets may have been cruel and unforgiving for many investors since 2008, the upshot is a golden opportunity for bargain hunters and value investors alike. The “Great Recession” is technically over, but by no means does that indicate that stocks have returned to their appropriate price levels, and anyone willing to put in the time and effort can sort through the securities haystack to find an underpriced needle more »

• Sears Dismal Year Just Got Worse

  By Tim Brugger - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: FDO, M, SHLD, TGT, WMT

  If you haven’t heard, Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) CEO Louis D’Ambrosio has decided to close as many as 120 underperforming stores across the country. These will include both Sears and Kmart locations, though which stores in particular are targeted has not been determined. Now, with over 4,000 stores across the country and Canada, 120 or so isn’t a huge number. It is, however, indicative of the kind more »

• Wal-Mart & Target: Fresh Produce Footprint

  By Jane Genova - December 26, 2011 | Tickers: SWY, SHLD, SVU, TGT, KR, WMT, WAG

  Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Supercenters and Target (NYSE: TGT) have figured out how to keep traffic coming into general merchandise brick and mortar retail.  The answer is: create a long fresh produce footprint, discount-priced.  Both stores made this an add-on to the dry-goods grocery departments already existing in the stores.  Therefore, it was a natural [no pun intended] fit that didn't have to be heavily promoted. 

  This is at a more »

• Emerson Radio's Deep Value

  By Nikhil Shamapant - December 25, 2011 | Tickers: MSN, TGT, WMT

  Recently, I have been reading The Little Book of Valuation, by Aswath Damodaran. It's truly an amazing book, chock full of information on finding the intrinsic and relative value of a company. His principles are important when considering the value of equity in Emerson Radio Corporation (AMEX: MSN).

  The Business and The Brand: Quotes from the most recent 10-K Filing explain the gist of their business.

  "The Company more »

• Buying Mercedes on the Cheap

  By Maxwell Kirchhoff - December 24, 2011 | Tickers: AVP, COH, TIF

  The unfolding crisis in Europe has led many economists and pundits to make bold predictions. From the demise of the Euro, to the buying opportunity of a lifetime, the statements being made are sweeping and loud. This brief article will focus on the latter claim, and specifically I will offer my opinion concerning a European equity that should offer tremendous upside in the years to come: Daimler AG (NasdaqOTH: DDAIF more »

• Welcome to the end of BestBuy

  By Roland Hughes - December 23, 2011 | Tickers: BBY, SHLD, SYX, TGT, WMT

  History repeats itself. Once you are older than dirt you can pretty much tell what the market will do for some companies in some sectors based upon what it did to others decades past.

  Are you old enough to remember Builder’s Square? In many parts of the Midwest, it was the first big box hardware store. One of those got built by Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, IL when more »

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