Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, September 19, 2014

Article Excerpt

CONAGRA FOODS INC., $33.61, New York symbol CAG, rose 4% this week after reporting better-than-expected earnings. In its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended August 24, 2014, ConAgra’s earnings form ongoing operations fell 16.6%, to $111.2 million, or $0.25 a share. A year earlier, it earned $133.4 million, or $0.30. The company recently merged its flour-milling operations into a new joint venture called Ardent Mills. ConAgra and privately held Cargill each own 44% of this new business, while CHS Inc. (Nasdaq symbol CHSCP) holds the remaining 12%. If you exclude all unusual items, including costs to integrate last year’s purchase of private-label food maker Ralcorp, earnings per share rose 5.4%, to $0.39 from $0.37, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35. Overall sales fell 0.4%, to $3.70 billion from $3.72 billion. Sales to other food makers and restaurants (which account for 29% of the total) rose 1.8%, mainly due to the contribution from a recently purchased frozen potato producer in Asia. However, sales of branded…