Our #1 buy keeps rising

Article Excerpt

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP. $63 (New York symbol TUP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 62.6 million; Market cap: $3.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.tupperwarebrands.com) is another example of a well-established consumer-products stock that gets little media attention. Like IFF (this issue), Tupperware also has a long history of steady dividends. Starting next year, the company will increase its annual dividend rate in line with increases in its earnings. Meanwhile, Tupperware continues to see strong demand for its plastic food containers and beauty products, particularly in fast-growing countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey. In the three months ended April 2, 2011, Tupperware’s sales rose 14.2%, to $636.4 million from $557.1 million a year earlier. The company gets over 85% of its sales from outside the U.S. If you exclude the positive impact of currency-exchange rates, Tupperware’s sales would have risen by 10% in the quarter. Before unusual items, earnings rose 18.4%, to $0.90 a share from $0.76. The…