Updating your Conservative-Growth Payers: Kraft Heinz

Article Excerpt

KRAFT HEINZ CO. $36 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol KHC, Conservative-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $48.0 billion; Dividend yield: 4.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average; www.kraftheinzcompany.com) is a leading producer of processed foods. Its top brands include Velveeta and Philadelphia cheese products, Oscar Mayer hot dogs, and Ore-Ida potatoes. Kraft cut the quarterly dividend by 36.5% with the March 2019 payment, to $0.40 a share from $0.63. The current annual rate of $1.60 nonetheless provides a high 4.4% yield. The dividend drop was due to declining sales of the company’s older brands as consumers continued their shift to healthier options. In response to rising food ingredient and other costs, Kraft has raised its selling prices. It also continues to benefit from a cost-cutting plan. As a result, in the first quarter of 2023, Kraft’s sales rose 7.3%, to $6.49 billion from $6.05 billion a year earlier. If you exclude divestitures and currency rates, sales increased 9.4% as higher…