Category Archives: Investments

ConAgra, Food for Investment Thought

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ConAgra Foods, Inc. is a food company with both a Consumer Foods segment and a Commercial Foods segment.  The Consumer Foods segment manufactures, private label, brand name and customized foods. It has 22 brands including Alexia, Wesson, Act II, Van Camps, Blue bonnet, Swiss Mix, Healthy Choice, Snack Pack, Hebrew National, Peter Pan, Slim Jim, Pam, Hunts, etc. The Commercial Food segment supplies food manufacturers, food services and industrial customers. ConAgra is a fortune 500 company which already says a lot.

One of the recent developments in the peanut butter market was due to an unusually poor peanut harvest this year. ConAgra will raise the price of its Peter Pan Peanut butter by 20%. Kraft will be raising the price of its Planters peanut butter by 40%. This may affect sales for better because ConAgra is raising its prices less than other manufacturers.

Some of the moving personalities at ConAgra foods are: Nicole Theophilus, André Hawaux,  John Gehring,  Ryan Scott , Al Bolles, Colleen Batcheler.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is of a general nature. All investment decisions should be based on a thorough analysis of the investment

A Strong Company Becomes Stronger

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Reed Elsevier plc (RUK) is a global leader in providing technical, medical, scientific and business information services and products. Elsevier has published approximately 20,000 books and publishes about 2,000 journals on an ongoing basis. Elsevier has just announced that they have just connected their science articles with SciVerse Science Direct and Datasets in the EarthChem Portal. EarthChem is a portal that facilitates locating a constorium of databases related to earth science. This joining of forces will enable scientists to locate more information and new research in a shorter time and will speed scientific progress.

RUK has a market capitalization of $10.49 billion. The stock is selling at $35.56 which is above both the 200-day moving average of 34.39 and the 50-day moving average of 33.56. Due to market conditions the stock took a dip down to $30 in August and remained down for 2 months until the end of September. In the last month the stock has climbed to the highs where it was 6 months ago around $35.93. In addition to share price the stock also pays a dividend which yields about 3.92%. The stock has a 32% return on Equity. With such an ROE and dividend I can see why this stock is able to hold its own in this troubles market.

Some of the leading managers are: Erik Engstrom; Adrian Hennah;  Marike van Lier Lels; Tom Ogburn; Anthony Habgood; David Reid;  Ben van der Veer; and Mark Armour.

The contents of this article are general information only. It is not comprehensive enough to make investment decisions which should be tailored to the qualifications of each individual investor. All investment decisions require a thorough analysis of each specific investment.

Alterra Capital Holdings

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Alterra Capital Holdings Limited (ALTE) is an insurance company and a reinsurer. Re-insurers help insurance companies to insure their customers. For example, if a customer wants a lot of insurance, the insurance company may spread the risk by taking working with other insurance companies to jointly insure the client. Alterra serves public organizations, corporations, and other insurance companies. Most of their business is conducted in English speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Bermuda and the United States.

During the past 2 years the stock has traded between $17 and $25. Since January, 2011 and August, the stock was trading between $21 and $23. In August it dropped to 18 and has recently recovered. The stock is selling for $22.40 which is above the 200-day moving average of 21.07 and also above the 50-day moving average of 19.65. These indicate that the stock has recovered from the summer volatility which shook the stock market. The P/E is 16.78 showing that perhaps the stock is a little over priced but not overly so. In today’s market, I find it impressive that Alterra’s stock is keeping level.

Until March 2011, the company was giving a dividend of between 13-15%. In June, after the stock dropped due to market volatility, the dividend also dropped to 2.15%. Since the stock price has recovered it could well be that the dividend will also return to its normal range.

Among the managers are: Sonia Galvis; Walker Rainey; Susan Spivak Bernstein; Peter A. Minton; and Beth DeGroat.

Disclaimer: This article is not authoritative advise. All investment decisions should be based on the investor’s thorough analysis.

Coke Adds Financial Stability

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Once the Coca Cola advertising slogan was “Coke Adds Life.” For those looking for long term stability Coca Cola adds stability, dividends and profits. First of all, Coke gives a dividend of 3% per year which is certainly better than the current 2% for ten year treasury bonds. Also, the price of Coke stock has been rising over the last 5 years, even though it was brought down temporarily by the market drop in 2009 when it dropped to $40. Since then it has risen to $68 even with the recent market volatility.

Indeed, Coca Cola is a giant company which operates worldwide. Now they are planning to invest $3 billion into the Russian market and $4 billion into the Chinese market. Because the company is so big, I believe that the risk of investing in this company is limited. People have been drinking cola for a hundred years and will continue. Also, we see that the management has the skills to remain profitable. One of Coca Cola’s former executives, Segun Ogunsanya, started as an accountant in Ghana and was developed by the company until he become the manager of the whole area. He recently left the company to become the CEO of an African beverage manufacturer. It just shows that these large companies know how to develop management to ensure their success.

Their 50-day moving average is 68.34 and their 200-day moving average is 67.62. The stock is trading at 68.19 which is good for a down market. The companies trailing P/E is 12.54 which shows that the company is reasonably priced in relation to its earnings.

All stocks should be thoroughly analyzed before being purchased and should not be purchased on hearsay.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is Healthy

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Logo

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) stock has been going up over the last 7 months and it has hit the top of its 52 week range of $24.97 to $31.93. The company is performing well and has topped the S&P 500 as well as the health care index.

The company is developing new medicines to cure hepatitis and cancer among other things. These will offset the revenue flow from medicines whose patents are about to expire. Bristol-Myers Squibb apparently is doing well at R&D because it has got many potential drugs in its pipelines, some already approved by the FDA.

BMY is also very profitable and has a P/E of 15.20 which is slightly on the high side. It also has a 4.2 % dividend yield which is good. During the last 5 years, BMY has also had a 15% average annual earnings growth.

Some major managers are: Joseph C. Caldarella the Senior VP and Controller; Dr. Elliott Sigal the Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D; Sanda Leung, the General Counsel; and Frances Cuss, the Senior VP of R&D.

You might want to analyze this stock as potential portfolio acquisition.