Our latest advice on four big food stocks

Article Excerpt

In March 2015, Kraft Foods soared 40% on news of its merger with ketchup maker Heinz. Speculation about more deals in the food business has also boosted the shares of the four companies below. So far, their earnings haven’t kept up with their stock prices — though we still see two of them as buys. MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL INC. $40 (Nasdaq symbol MDLZ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $64.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mondelezinternational.com) makes cookies and biscuits (Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Ritz), chocolate bars (Cadbury, Toblerone) and gum and candy (Trident, Chiclets and Halls cough drops). In May 2014, the company agreed to merge its packaged coffee business with European coffee maker D.E. Master Blenders. Under the deal, Mondelez will contribute its coffee brands, including Jacobs, Gevalia and Tassimo, to a new firm called Jacobs Douwe Egberts. It will get about $4.5 billion in cash and 49% of…