Campbell Soup raises savings target

Article Excerpt

CAMPBELL SOUP CO. $58 (New York symbol CPB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 307.9 million; Market cap: $17.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.campbellsoupcompany.com) is the world’s largest maker of canned soups. Other products include Prego canned pasta and sauces, Pepperidge Farm cookies, V8 vegetable juices and Bolthouse Farms fresh carrots. The company earned $281 million in its fiscal 2017 second quarter, ended January 29, 2017. That’s up 3.7% from $271 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 4.6%, to $0.91 from $0.87, on fewer shares outstanding. The higher earnings are due to a lower tax rate and a successful cost-cutting plan. Campbell expects restructuring to remove $300 million from its annual expenses for fiscal 2017. The annual savings should rise to $450 million by the end of 2020. Sales in the quarter declined 1.4%, to $2.17 billion from $2.20 billion. That’s partly because bad weather hurt the company’s supply of fresh carrots. Lower sales…