Our Reports on Stocks in the Food Products (Small/Mid-Cap) Industry

Structure of the Food Products Industry The food products industry is composed of a number of firms with strong brand names. However, market supply/demand dynamics and intense competition still impact product prices, while fluctuations in commodity costs can make earnings quite volatile. Private-label competition, competitors’ promotional spending, and changing consumer preferences often drive demand trends. The group’s customers—such as supermarkets, warehouses, and food distributors—continue to consolidate, increasing buying power over constituents and hurting margins. Still, we’re generally neutral on the group. We’ve reallocated our resources to cover more recession-resistant stocks. See here.

Ralcorp Accepts Buyout From ConAgra…Finally

Early Tuesday morning, ConAgra (click ticker for report: ) announced that it will acquire Ralcorp for $5 billion, or $90 per share in cash, a cool 28.2% premium from yesterday’s closing price. This deal is slightly surprising, given that Ralcorp rebuffed the firm’s previous $94 per share offer in 2011, as it opted to spin-off its Post Cereal (POST) business instead. However, given Post’s share performance, and the $90 per share buyout offer, we think Ralcorp shareholders came out slightly ahead. If we use Ralcorp’s fiscal year 2012 adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations ($2.97), the deal certainly doesn’t look cheap at 30 times this year’s earnings. Even when that figure is adjusted for acquisition-related amortization, the company paid 24 … Read more