Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, December 22, 2017

Article Excerpt

CAMPBELL SOUP CO., $48.70, New York symbol CPB, makes a variety of foods under popular brands such as Campbell’s (condensed soups), V8 (beverages), Goldfish (snacks) and Bolthouse Farms (fresh carrots). The company has agreed to acquire Snyder’s-Lance Inc. (Nasdaq symbol LNCE). Its products include pretzels, sandwich crackers, kettle cooked chips, pretzel crackers, cookies, potato chips, tortilla chips, popcorn, nuts and other salty snacks. Its main brands include Snyder’s of Hanover; Lance; Cape Cod; Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps; Pop Secret; Emerald; Kettle Brand; KETTLE Chips, and Late July. Campbell will pay roughly $4.9 billion in cash for Snyder’s-Lance. If you include that company’s debt, the purchase price is $6.1 billion. The combined company will have annual sales of over $10 billion. It will get 46% of its revenue from snacks, 27% from soup, 17% from simple meals and 10% from beverages. Campbell will borrow $6.2 billion to finance the acquisition. That will increase its long-term debt to $8.5 billion, or 58% of its $14.6 billion…