Seeking Alpha: For Pinnacle Foods, Slowly Does It

If you're looking for a dynamic revenue growth story, you probably want to look somewhere other than at Pinnacle Foods (PF). Pinnacle's management is realistic, looking for growth in line with the industry categories and focusing instead on optimizing cost and operating leverage. With several other brands and food businesses likely up for sale and opportunities for additional gross margin improvements, Pinnacle Foods still offers some respectable upside for patient investors.

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For Pinnacle Foods, Slowly Does It

Investopedia: Campbell Soup Doesn't Seem To Be Prioritizing The Right Things

It's hard to run too hot or cold on Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB). It has typically been a pretty conservatively-run company and many of its brands are virtually iconic. That said, management has been making some unusual decisions of late – promotional spend has seemed erratic, the company does not appear to be supporting Pepperidge Farms enough, and acquisitions of organic baby food and retail carrots are head-scratchers. Campbell Soup isn't unusual in being a somewhat expensive-looking packaged food stock, but this isn't a stock I'd pay up to own.

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Investopedia: With Scale, Flowers Foods Has Built A New Future For Itself

Tech investors may turn their noses up at consumer staples companies as hopelessly low-growth and boring, but Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) is a good example of what a prudently aggressive management team can accomplish. In 2000, the company served about one-third of the country; now that figure is up over 75% and the company has yet to focus on the Midwest and Pacific Northwest regions.

Along the way, Flowers blend of organic and acquired growth, scale, and operating leverage has produced nearly 9% compound revenue growth and almost 15% free cash flow growth. That, in turn, has fueled one-year, five-year, and 10-year stock appreciation of almost 70%, 100%, and 500%. While I'm not calling for an end to Flowers gaining share or growing its business, I do wonder if the shares aren't in need of a little rest, as the valuation no longer seems quite so compelling at these levels.

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Investopedia: Annie's Still A High Growth-High Multiple Proposition

The hot packaged food market has cooled a bit recently, but Annie's (NYSE:BNNY) continues to sport a rich multiple as a relatively rare high-quality play on consumer demand for natural and organic food. Annie's isn't just a healthy living play, though, as the company is still relatively young and can look forward to years of product introductions and further distribution leverage. I recognize that growth investors tend to emphasize opportunities more than multiples, but more value-conscious investors may not find Annie's so appealing today.

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Investopedia: Diamond Foods Making Better Moves, But Large Uncertainties Remain

Diamond Foods (Nasdaq:DMND) is trying to get back on solid footing after a series of self-inflicted wounds threatened the survival (or at least the independence) of the company not so long ago. While rehashing the company's accounting issues and strategic missteps is beyond the scope of this article, the fact remains that Diamond Foods is still in the middle of its clean-up operations. Valuing these shares is tricky given all the factors at work, but they do appear undervalued provided that the company can continue to repair its margins and clean up its capital structure.

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Investopedia: Campbell Soup Shows That Shoppers Are More Price-Sensitive Than Investors

This has been a banner year for investors in consumer product companies, particularly staples like packaged foods and beverages. What makes that interesting is that the backdrop hasn't been quite that strong – organic revenue growth has been hard to come by and margin leverage is not exactly plentiful. And yet, despite worries about sustainable growth in the soups business and the weakness in the beverage business, Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) has seen its stock outperform the likes of Nestle (OTC:NSRGY), Kellogg (NYSE:K), General Mills (NYSE:GIS), and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO).

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Investopedia: General Mills Third Quarter Earnings

When Heinz (NYSE:HNZ) drew a premium-priced buyout bid from 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A, BRK.B), investors got giddy about revaluing the entire packaged food sector. Unfortunately, that looks a bit indiscriminate when it comes to General Mills (NYSE:GIS). While this isn't a bad business per se, nor is it one where a buyer couldn't find some room for improvement - it doesn't have the same sort of brands, market share or international profile. General Mills' fiscal third quarter earnings weren't bad, but the shares are trading in excess of fair value today and don't look like a great holding at these prices.

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Seeking Alpha: Mondelez's Sugary Valuation Could Cause Wealth Decay

I can understand why investors like Mondelez (MDLZ). The company is not only #1 or #2 in most of its products and markets, but it has been deliberately assembled to address faster-growing markets in the larger packaged food industry. On top of that, this company has some of the highest exposure to emerging markets in the sector. Yet for all of those positives, I do think investors should be careful about what they pay, as expectations for this company are already pretty significant.

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Mondelez's Sugary Valuation Could Cause Wealth Decay

Investopedia: Annie's Surfing A Rising Tide In Food

Annie's (NYSE:BNNY) looks like one of those companies that is destined to be controversial and frustrating for the skeptics. The company's business model is predicated on selling premium-priced packaged foods to customers who believe it's somehow better for them, and while skeptics will almost certainly question how sustainable that model is, plenty of companies have prospered for years by selling people on the notion that there is value in paying up for their particular products.

In the meantime, the more pressing financial questions revolve around the company's ability to successfully introduce new products and drive better margins while they do. Not surprisingly, the stock is no particular bargain today, but growth investors are not likely to abandon it for that particular reason.

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Investopedia: Can Silgan Balance Ongoing Returns Of Capital With Building For The Future?

It's hard to argue that Silgan (Nasdaq:SLGN) doesn't have a very attractive business with pretty significant barriers to entry. Silgan has a better than 50% share in North American can markets, and likewise substantial share in its closures business. What's more, other competitors like Ball (NYSE:BLL), Crown Holdings (NYSE:CCK) and Berry Plastics (NYSE:BERY) tend towards the rational when it comes to pricing. Couple that with a strong emphasis on returning capital to shareholders (with dividends and buybacks), and you have what looks like a strong company.

The question with Silgan, though, is the extent to which it can adapt with the times. As food producers have switched from glass to plastic, I expect the same to happen over time with metal. While Silgan can offset some of that with expansion into emerging markets, I have to ask whether the company also needs to grow beyond metal cans to maintain its long-term earnings power.

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Investopedia: General Mills Still A Good News, Bad News Story

I haven't felt all that adamantly positive or negative about General Mills (NYSE:GIS) for a while now. While the company has some definite positives in its favor (a history of innovation and good international growth potential), it is also struggling with weak volumes and share loss in key categories. With the price close to fair value and an uncertain retail strategy in the United States, I'd still just as soon own other stocks in the consumer staples area.

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Investopedia: If You're Going To Overpay For A Food Stock, Why Not Heinz?

I tend to believe that Wall Street overvalues the supposed stability of packaged/branded food and beverage companies, which is why investors seldom have the chance to buy the stocks of Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) or Kellogg (NYSE:K) at really compelling valuations. Within the broader group of expensive food names, I can see an argument for owning Heinz (NYSE:HNZ) today. Not only is Heinz doing relatively well from an organic growth standpoint, but the combination of strong brands in developed markets and a very good presence in emerging markets is compelling to me.

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Investopedia: Campbell Soup Still More "Ho Hum" Than "Mmm Mmm"

It's largely understood that established packaged/processed food companies are not exactly growth titans. As a result, investors who look at Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) as a part of a portfolio of dividend-paying bond alternatives may not be all that put out by the company's sluggish performance. Investors more focused on total returns, however, may need to see more evidence that Campbell Soup management has a real plan to reinvigorate growth before buying these shares.

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Investopedia: Unlike Twinkies, Hostess Proves Very Perishable

For many companies, bankruptcy is an opportunity to gain some breathing space, refinance debt and move on. Most airlines have been through bankruptcy at least once, and many other companies in operation today once had to seek protection from their creditors. It's not often that major companies choose the route of liquidation, but on Thursday, Hostess, the maker of well-known baked goods like Wonder Bread and Twinkies, announced that it was doing precisely that.

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Investopedia: Pringles Already Paying Off For Kellogg

If early returns are any indication, it looks like the nearly $3 billion deal for Pringles is going to work out for Kellogg (NYSE:K). Management has already indicated, through SEC filings and this quarterly report, that the deal is looking even more accretive than originally expected, and it looks like the cereal business is also improving. The biggest question with Kellogg would seem to be whether the company can deliver real growth at the operating/EBITDA line, but today's valuation already seems to expect solid improvements there.

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Investopedia: General Mills Seeing Good OUS Growth, But Yoplait Needs Help

It's always something with Wall Street analysts and investors. So although General Mills (NYSE:GIS) is doing all right in businesses such soup and baked goods, and management seems pretty confident that the drought won't hurt margins much, worries about the Yoplait yogurt business overshadow good growth in overseas markets. While General Mills may not be a bad option for long-term income-inclined investors, it's hard to work up a lot of excitement on the basis of today's valuation.

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Investopedia: Still Waiting For A Better Plan From Campbell Soup

For a company with what should otherwise be a simple business, Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) offers up more than a few questions. Can the company stem its share losses in soup? Can the company effectively compete with the likes of Kellogg (NYSE:K) and Kraft (Nasdaq:KFT) in snacks? Does management really have a solid long-term growth strategy? How you see the answers to these questions goes a long way toward answering whether this is a good stock to own for the next few years.

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Investopedia: General Mills May Be Making A Mistake With Its Spending

Nothing changes all that fast in packaged food, and the trends that drove General Mills (NYSE:GIS) in the fourth quarter are basically the same that we've seen from ConAgra (NYSE:CAG), Nestle (OTC:NSRGY) and the rest of the sector. While this company's focus on building its international business is a smart move for the long-term, I do wonder if the company is under-spending on promotions and putting 2013 sales performance at risk.

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Investopedia: Campbell Soup Still Well Below Simmer

Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) is still looking for the right recipe to boost its performance and has been for quite some time now. In more than half a decade, this well-known soup, beverage and snack company has grown its revenue by less than $200 million (or about 2%), despite a series of strategies targeting things such as new products, pricing and emerging markets.

It's worth asking if Campbell Soup management is looking at the right targets, even now. It may simply be that soup is no longer a growth market and that product development and promotional efforts in this category are a waste of money. Said differently, if companies like Kraft (NYSE:KFT) and Kellogg (NYSE:K) see their futures in snack foods and ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) and Ralcorp (NYSE:RAH) in generics, Campbell Soup may be wasting shareholder capital on strategies that just can't work in the long run.

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Investopedia: Global Growth Still Driving The Coca-Cola Story

For writers, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is either the best or worst of companies to follow because nothing really ever changes. Coca-Cola continues to execute a well-crafted business plan with efficiency and continues to leverage one of the best brands in the world. What's more, the stock continues to be expensive as investors prefer to pay a premium for security.

Solid Volume in First Quarter
Coca-Cola certainly had little trouble getting consumers to drink more soda, water and juice in the first quarter. Global case volume was up 5%, as North America (up 2%), Asia (up 8%) and Europe (up 1%) were stronger than many expected and helped offset slight weakness in Latin America (which was still up 5%). Price and mix improved about 3%, while currency headwinds reduced reported revenue growth to 6%.

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