Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, December 6, 2019

Article Excerpt

CAMPBELL SOUP CO., $47.75, New York symbol CPB, is still a buy. The company recently completed a strategic review of its operations. As a result, it has sold most of its international and refrigerated-foods businesses. That will let it focus on canned soups, pasta and V8 vegetable juices. Campbell will also keep its snack foods operations, which it significantly expanded in March 2018 when it paid $6.1 billion for snack-foods maker Snyder’s-Lance. In the fiscal 2020 first quarter, ended October 27, 2019, sales from ongoing operations fell 0.9%, to $2.18 billion from $2.20 billion a year earlier. That missed the consensus forecast of $2.20 billion. The lower sales are mainly due to weaker demand for its meals and beverages division (55% of total sales), which offset higher sales of snack products (45%). Campbell earned $169 million, or $0.56 a share, in the quarter. That’s down 6.1% from $180 million, or $0.60, a year earlier. If you exclude all unusual items, earnings per share gained…