Campbell Soup remains the better pick

Article Excerpt

Rising prices for ingredients, packaging and transportation are hurting profits for both Campbell Soup and PepsiCo. We still like both stocks, but feel Campbell offers investors a better combination of capital gains potential and income. CAMPBELL SOUP CO. $40 is a buy. The company (New York symbol CPB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 302.1 million; Market cap: $12.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.campbellsoupcompany.com) makes canned soups, pasta and V8 vegetable juices. In March 2018, Campbell significantly expanded its snack food operations when it paid $6.1 billion for snack-foods maker Snyder’s-Lance. Snacks now account for half of its sales. In its fiscal 2021 fourth quarter, ended August 1, 2021, Campbell’s sales fell 11.1%, to $1.87 billion from $2.11 billion a year earlier. If you factor out the sale of a baby food business and currency rates, sales declined 3.7%. Earnings before one-time items in the quarter fell 13.0%, to $167 million, or $0.55 a share, from $192…