Short-term challenges weigh on these two

Article Excerpt

Food sellers Sysco and Supervalu stand to gain from increasing restaurant traffic and grocery store sales as the economy recovers. However, they could have trouble passing along higher food and other costs to their customers. We feel both stocks will likely make little progress in the next few months. SYSCO CORP. $31 (New York symbol SYY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 592.6 million; Market cap: $18.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 3.2%; WSSF Rating: Average) supplies food and kitchen supplies to over 400,000 restaurants, hotels and schools in North America and Ireland. Restaurants account for over 60% of Sysco’s sales, and more people are eating at home because of the weak economy. As a result, the company’s second-quarter sales fell 3.1%, to $8.9 billion from $9.1 billion a year earlier (Sysco’s second quarter ended December 26, 2009). Lower food costs also held back Sysco’s sales. Sysco cut its workforce by about 6% in response to the slowing sales. That’s mainly…