Top brands let them pass along higher costs

Article Excerpt

These three leading foodmakers continue to post strong sales gains, mainly because they are increasing their selling prices as they cope with higher costs for ingredients, labour and fuel. So far, thanks to their strong brands, the higher prices have not significantly hurt their volumes. All three are also improving their efficiency, which helps support their dividends. However, we see only two as buys right now. GENERAL MILLS INC. $83 is a hold. This consumer staples giant (New York symbol GIS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 593.5 million; Market cap: $49.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 2.6%; www.generalmills.com) is one of the world’s largest foodmakers. Its top brands include Cheerios (cereal), Pillsbury (baking dough), Progresso (soups and salads) and Blue Buffalo (pet food), which it acquired in April 2018 for $8.0 billion. General Mills continues to expand its pet food business. In July 2021, it paid $1.2 billion for Tyson Foods’ (New York symbol TSN) pet treats operations. The company is also adding other…