Activist attention boosts Mondelez

Article Excerpt

MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL INC. $45 (Nasdaq symbol MDLZ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $72.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mondelezinternational.com) makes cookies and biscuits (Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Ritz), chocolate bars (Cadbury, Toblerone), gum and candy (Trident, Chiclets) and Halls cough drops. In July 2015, Mondelez merged its packaged coffee business with European coffee maker D.E. Master Blenders. Under the deal, Mondelez contributed its coffee brands, including Jacobs, Gevalia and Tassimo, to a new firm called Jacobs Douwe Egberts. In return, it received $4.2 billion in cash and 43.5% of the new company. If you exclude unusual items, such as a $6.9-billion gain on this sale, Mondelez earned $678 million in the three months ended September 30, 2015, down 20.1% from $849 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 16.0%, to $0.42 from $0.50, on fewer shares outstanding. The sale of the coffee business cut Mondelez’s sales by 17.8%,…