HILLSHIRE BRANDS CO. $27 - New York symbol HSH

HILLSHIRE BRANDS CO. $27 (New York symbol HSH; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 122.3 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.hillshirebrands.com) makes a variety of packaged meat products. Its main brands include Ball Park hot dogs, Jimmy Dean sausages and Hillshire Farm deli meats. Its other foods include Sara Lee frozen desserts and Chef Pierre pies.

If you disregard costs related to the breakup and other unusual items, Hillshire would have earned $62 million in its fiscal 2013 first quarter, which ended September 29, 2012. That’s up 65.9% from $38 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 59.4%, to $0.51 from $0.32, on more shares outstanding. Sales rose 2.0%, to $1.0 billion from $991 million.

The higher earnings are partly due to savings from plant closures and job cuts. These moves should lower its annual costs by $100 million by the end of fiscal 2015.

The company will probably earn $1.58 a share in fiscal 2013. The stock trades at 17.1 times that forecast. The $0.50 dividend yields 1.9%.

Hillshire Brands is a hold.

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