Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, August 18, 2023

Article Excerpt

CAMPBELL SOUP CO., $42.83, New York symbol CPB, is a buy. Campbell last raised your quarterly dividend with the February 2021 payment. Investors now receive $0.37 a share, up 5.7% from $0.35. The new annual rate of $1.48 yields a solid 3.5%. Under its new strategic plan, which began in 2018, Campbell sold most of its international and refrigerated-foods businesses. That let it focus on canned soups, pasta and V8 vegetable juices. Campbell also kept its snack food operations. They were significantly expanded in March 2018 when the company paid $6.1 billion for snack-foods maker Snyder’s-Lance. Campbell is now buying Colorado-based Sovos Brands Inc. (Nasdaq symbol SOVO), the maker of Rao’s pasta sauces. Its other products include dry pasta, soups, frozen entrées, frozen pizza and yogurts. The company will pay $2.7 billion for Sovos. To put that cost in perspective, Campbell’s market cap (the total value of all outstanding shares) is $12.7 billion. Assuming Sovos shareholders and regulators approve, Campbell expects to complete the transaction by…