Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, October 6, 2017

Article Excerpt

LAMB WESTON HOLDINGS INC., $49.13, New York symbol LW, sells frozen potatoes and other vegetable products to restaurants and prepared-food makers. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Conagra Brands Inc. (New York symbol CAG, see below) until November 9, 2016. That’s when Conagra spun off Lamb Weston and handed its investors one Lamb Weston share for every three Conagra shares they held. Lamb Weston’s sales in its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter, ended August 27, 2017, rose 5.3%, to $817.5 million from $776.3 million a year earlier. (Those earlier results are pro-forma figures provided by the company.) The latest sales beat the consensus forecast of $795.6 million. Higher selling prices and volumes were the reasons for the increase. If you disregard costs related to the spinoff and other unusual items, Lamb Weston earned $0.57 a share in the latest quarter. That’s down 1.7% from $0.58 a year earlier, mainly due to higher interest costs on existing debt. Even so, the latest earnings…