Topic: Growth Stocks

The Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, November 27, 2009

Article Excerpt

H.J. HEINZ CO., $42.42, New York symbol HNZ, rose 3% this week after it reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and sales. The food maker also boosted its full-year outlook. Heinz earned $0.76 a share in its second quarter, which ended October 28, 2009. That’s down 11.6% from $0.86 a year earlier. However, if you exclude an $0.18-a-share foreign-currency hedging gain in the year-earlier quarter, its earnings per share would have risen by 11.8%. The latest earnings also beat the consensus estimate of $0.70 a share. Sales rose 2.5%, to $2.7 billion from $2.6 billion. Analysts were expecting $2.63 billion. Heinz is benefiting as the slow economy prompts more people to eat at home. The company is also making strong gains in emerging markets, including Mexico, India and Russia. That helped offset lower sales to restaurants in the U.S. Heinz gets roughly 60% of its sales from overseas markets, and the falling U.S. dollar will enhance their contribution. That’s partly why Heinz now expects to…