Good quarter for Mondelez

Article Excerpt

MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL INC. $74 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol MDLZ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $103.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mondelezinternational.com) mainly makes snack foods such as cookies, chocolate bars and gum. Mondelez recently sold its gum businesses in the U.S., Canada and Europe for $1.4 billion. Despite that sale, its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 rose 7.1%, to $9.31 billion from $8.70 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly because the company raised its selling prices to offset rising prices for cocoa and other inputs. Per-share earnings also gained 23.5%, to $0.84 from $0.68. Earnings will probably improve 10% to $3.52 a share in 2024. The stock trades at a reasonable 21.0 times that forecast. The $1.70 dividend yields 2.3%. Mondelez is a buy. buy…