These foodmakers can handle rising costs

Article Excerpt

Foodmakers Conagra and its spinoff Lamb Weston are facing rising costs for ingredients and shipping. In response, both are raising their selling prices, which should protect their margins. Their ongoing moves to improve efficiency will also pay off for investors. CONAGRA BRANDS INC. $32 is a buy. The company (New York symbol CAG; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 480.0 million; Market cap: $15.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.conagrabrands.com) makes a variety of popular foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and Reddi-wip whipped cream. Conagra’s sales continue to revert to pre-pandemic levels as more people eat meals outside of the home. Sales in its fiscal 2022 first quarter, ended August 29, 2021, fell 1.0%, to $2.65 billion from $2.69 billion a year earlier. If you exclude the businesses that Conagra recently sold as well as foreign exchange rates, sales declined 0.4%. That reflects a 2.0% drop in volume, offset by a 1.6%…