Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, December 20, 2013

Article Excerpt

PLEASE NOTE: This is our last Hotline for 2013. Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, January 3, 2014. CONAGRA FOODS INC., $33.54, New York symbol CAG, plans to appeal a ruling by the Superior Court of California ordering it to pay into a fund to clean up homes contaminated with lead paint. Beatrice Company owned paint maker W.P. Fuller until 1967. ConAgra acquired Beatrice in 1991 and became liable for any outstanding lead-paint lawsuits against W.P. Fuller. The court ordered ConAgra, Sherwin-Williams (see below) and another firm to pay total damages of $1.1 billion. ConAgra didn’t say what its share of this sum is, but it has already set aside $63.0 million (as of August 25, 2013) to cover payouts for other Beatrice-related environmental claims. Similar lead-paint lawsuits in other states have failed, so any final settlement will likely be small in relation to ConAgra’s earnings. Meanwhile, the company earned $248.7 million in its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended November 24,…