Jim Cramer:TSCM, Mad Money & The Street.com: Food Companies

» Jen_ - Food Companies

copied from the "US Stock Market" thread...

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Author: Jen_
Date: June 13, 2002 9:19 AM
Subject: Food Companies
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Jim Cramer on his noon-time radio show often says "there's always a Bull Market someplace". Yes - it seems that Cramer is always up on whatever is doing well and is always down on whatever is doing poorly - he's been down on tech since around March 2000, and through the bear market he's been up on the companies with recognizable brand names in the local grocery store - on one show he even took listeners on a tour of the grocery store aisle-by-aisle pointing out good companies....one of his fav companies is H.J. Heinz (HNZ).

This from 6/13 MSNBC.com....

Heinz, Del Monte form joint venture

Ketchup maker’s quarterly earnings rise

Reuters

H.J. Heinz Co., the world’s largest ketchup maker, said Thursday that it will spin off its pet foods, tuna, soup and baby foods units, and merge them with Del Monte Foods Co., to focus on faster-growing lines. Heinz also reported its earnings in its fiscal fourth quarter rose.

HEINZ, which is based in Pittsburgh, said it earned $223.5 million, or 63 cents a share, including special items, in the quarter ended May 1, compared with $170.5 million, or 49 cents, a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts’ earnings estimates for Heinz ranged from 59 cents to 63 cents a share in the quarter, with an average estimate at 62 cents, according to Thomson First Call.

Del Monte Foods Co., the largest U.S. distributor of canned fruits and vegetables, will create a new company with Heinz brands that it says will sell about $3.1 billion of tuna fish, cat food and other food products a year.

Under terms of the deal Heinz shareholders would get 0.45 shares of the new company, which will keep the Del Monte name, for each share they own. Heinz shareholders will own about 74.5 percent of the new company and Del Monte shareholders will own about 25.5 percent.

Del Monte shares closed at $10.75 on Wednesday and Heinz shares closed at $41.60 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Heinz (HNZ), Del Monte (DLM)& ConAgra (CAG) News & Charts at Yahoo

Some charts - when comparing returns on food companies against the indexes you have to look at the total returns charts at Quicken.com because most food stocks declare pretty hefty dividends - I think the present ConAgra (CAG) dividend is 4%...

<img src="http://pvcharts.quicken.com/bin/icenter...." width=470 height=250>
HNZ, DLM, CAG, DJIA, S&P500 3 YR Chart - Growth of 10K

<img src="http://pvcharts.quicken.com/bin/icenter...." width=470 height=250>
1 YR Chart

"There's always a Bull Market Someplace!".....Jen

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The Heinz article link has been updated since originally posted - now it's ....

Heinz to spin off several more units

Del Monte Foods to double in size with deal

By Jonathan Eig and Robert Frank
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

June 13 — H.J. Heinz Co. said it is spinning off its most sluggish units in a deal that will reduce its size by 20 percent and double the size of Del Monte Foods Co.....

....Jen

-- posted by Jen_