Restructuring sets them up for a rebound

Article Excerpt

NEWELL BRANDS INC. $14 (Nasdaq symbol NWL; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 423.1 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 6.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newellbrands.com) plans to focus on nine key product lines: writing; baby; home fragrance; food; fishing; Jostens (jewellery); appliances and cookware; outdoor and recreation; and safety and security. As part of that strategy, Newell continues to sell its other operations. Those include its Process Solutions business, which makes custom-designed plastic parts for other manufacturers. It also supplies copper-plated zinc penny blanks to the U.S. Mint. In addition, the company has sold its Rexair vacuum cleaner business. Newell received a total of $735 million (after taxes) for those two businesses. In all, the company aims to raise $10 billion from the sale of its less-important operations. Meantime, overall sales in the three months ended March 31, 2019, fell 5.5%, to $1.71 billion from $1.81 billion a year earlier. Excluding businesses that Newell plans to sell, sales fell 2.4%. The…