Big acquisition coming along nicely

Article Excerpt

KRAFT FOODS INC. $31 (New York symbol KFT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $52.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.kraft.com) is the world’s second-largest food company, after Switzerland-based Nestle. Kraft has 11 brands that each generate over $1 billion in yearly sales. These include Kraft (cheeses, pasta and salad dressings), Philadelphia (cream cheese), Maxwell House (coffee), Nabisco (biscuits), Oreo (cookies) and Oscar Meyer (meats). In April 2010, Kraft paid $18.5 billion in cash and stock for U.K.-based Cadbury plc, a leading maker of chocolate, candy and gum. These products are more profitable than Kraft’s foods, so adding Cadbury should increase Kraft’s long-term earnings. Big overseas growth potential Cadbury has a larger international presence than Kraft. So using Cadbury’s distribution networks will also help Kraft increase its sales in fast-growing countries, like China and India. It will take Kraft three years to absorb Cadbury. But Kraft now believes that combining marketing, distribution and product-development…