Posts for Ticker ‘DLM’

The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World

hersheyThere are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed  by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”.  Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless.  How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business.  Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets.  A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value.  If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list: Read More »

Del Monte Ready To Scrap StarKist (DLM)

Del Monte Foods Company (NYSE: DLM) is responding to written reports and confirmed that the company is exploring strategic alternatives for its seafood business, which could include a potential sale of the business.

Of course it cannot assure that its exploration of strategic alternatives will result in a transaction and that the Board of Directors has not approved a transaction at this time.

Del Monte Foods generated $3.414 Billion in sales for fiscal April 29, 2007, and StarKist Seafood operating segment had sales of $542.4 million, a decrease of $23.5 million or 4.2%, compared to fiscal 2006.  Del Monte’s total market cap is $1.87 Billion with shares down about 1.6% today.

The company also noted that it and two others accounted for some 79% of the canned tuna market, with Del Monte’s StarKist having some 33.7% of that market.

StarKist is a brand that it should be able to unload rather easily despite some of the slowing from 2006 to 2007, or so it would seem.  Owning that much market share is perhaps value enough, particularly if this can be combined with another operation.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other break-ups, secondary offerings, IPO’s, secondary offerings, special financings, mergers, spin-offs, and other special situations.

Jon C. Ogg
May 16, 2008

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

The 52-Week Low Club (VZ)(IAR)(MS)(BX)(UBS)

Verizon (VZ) Bad news on broadband set-top delays and price cutting for cellular service. Falls to $35.37 from 52-week high of $46.24.

Idearc (IAR) New CEO appointed after weak earnings. Not much of a first day at work. Shares drop to $7.64 from 52-week high of $38.

Morgan Stanley (MS) Fear of more write-offs. Sells down to $41.42 from 52-week high of $90.95.

Blackstone Group (BX) Market hates private equity. Shares drop to $16.05 from 52-week high of $38.

UBS (UBS) Bad day to be a bank. Moves down to $32.57 from 52-week high of $66.26.

Del Monte Foods (DLM) No news, just selling. Falls to $8.05 from 52-week high of $12.94.

Penwest Pharmaceuticals (PPCO) Generic competition trying to come into market. Drops to $2.90 from 52-week high of $15.42.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Pre-Market Stock News (June 15, 2007)

(ADBE) Adobe trading down 1% after beating earnings but issuing in-line guidance.
(BBW) Build-a-Bear lowered guidance; stock down almost 15%.
(CROX) CROCS Inc. trades ex-split today.
(DELL) Dell is still delaying quarterly filing and results.
(DLM) Del Monte fell another 1% on estimate cuts.
(DRA) Coinmach getting $13.55 cash buyout from Babcock & Brown.
(EPCT) EpiCept’s Azixa (MPC-6827) showed a wide degree of efficacy against multiple tumor types and in drug resistant cell lines.
(INTC) Intel trading up almost 2% on Goldman Sachs upgrade.
(NVS) Novartis said a lumiracoxib study showed significantly less impact on blood pressure than Ibuprofen in osteoarthritis patients with controlled hypertension.
(SNE) Sony is considering a PS3 price cut to compete with Wii and Xbox 360.
(SWHC) Smith & Wesson traded up 5% after posting large earnings gains.

Market Trades For Super-Bulls, Chicken-Bulls, and Outright Bears

Stock Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, RIMM, BA, UTX, ATI, RTP, RIO, FLR, SGR, PEP, KO, BUD, CAG, HNZ, CPB, HRL, K, GIS, KFT, MCD, MRK, PFE, ALO, PYX, HME, WTR, SNH, SRZ, PG, CL, MO, RAI, CLX, NVO, BRK/A, FLO, DLM, PSQ, DOG, SSO, SH, BIL, IEI, TLT, TLH

There is more than enough bantering back and forth out there about the week’s sell-off in reaction to long-term interest rates and the Bill Gross predictions for potentially higher rates longer-term.  So, if you are a super-bull then you’d want to use the leadership stocks to pile surplus cash into thinking the world didn’t really change.  If you are a chicken-bull (want to buy but not overly aggressive and still cautious) then you want to buy defensive stocks.  If you’re a bear, well at least you get the 5% interest.  We wanted to provide at least a partial list of the bull and bear go-to picks ahead of the weekend when many will be doing extra amounts of reading.

Aggressive Bullish Picks

IF this was just an unwarranted sell-off that came because of a rate spook and if Mr. Gross is wrong, then you go hard and fast into what has been working before.  Aerospace, Infrastructure, Metals & Mining, very selective Tech.  So out of selective tech the two most obvious names are Apple (AAPL) and either Google (GOOG) or Research-in-Motion (RIMM).  In Aerospace the go-to names are Boeing (BA) and United Tech (UTX).  In metals its Allegheny Tech (ATI), Rio Tinto (RTP), and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce ‘CVRD’ (RIO).  In infrastructure the go-to names are Fluor (FLR), Shaw Group (SGR).  This week Jim Cramer gave his New Four Horsemen of Technology and booted the old ones.

Defensive Stock Plays For Chicken-Bull

Because this sell-off is for a different reason, we have eliminated the power companies because of the tie being so geared toward higher rates.  We’ve also pulled out the debt collection companies because they ran so much after the last sub-prime scare.  Here was the first line of 20 defensive stocks back in February from the mini-Asian meltdown and here was the list of second-line defensive names.   This still leaves plenty of options, and we added in a few more.

First Line Defensive Stocks: Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Anheuser-Busch (BUD), ConAgra (CAG), Heinz (HNZ), Campbell Soup (CPB), Hormel (HRL), Kellogg (K), General Mills (GIS), Kraft (KFT), McDonalds (MCD), Merck (MRK), Pfizer (PFE), P & G (PG), Colgate-Polmolive (CL), Altria (MO), Reynolds American (RAI), and Clorox (CLX).

Second-Line Defensive Stocks:  Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/a), Flowers Foods (FLO), Del Monte Foods (DLM), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Alpharma (ALO), Playtex (PYX), Home Properties (HME), Aqua America (WTR), and Senior Housing (SNH), Sunrise Senior Living (SRZ).

The Bearish Trades

If you are still bearish or are completely bearish, then you’ve got Treasuries and all of the inverse ETF funds.  Some of the negative market ETF trades that move invesrely are the SHORT QQQ PROSHARES (PSQ), SHORT DOW30 PROSHARES (DOG), ULTRA S&P500 PROSHARES (SSO), SHORT S&P500 PROSHARES (SH), and more.  For short-term rate ETF’s you have the fairly new STREETTRACKS SERIES TRUST Lehman 1-3 MO T-BILL (BIL).  The more liquid interest rate ETF’s that actually trade are the iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treas Bond (TLT), iShares Lehman 10-20 Year Treas Bond (TLH), iShares Lehman 3-7 Year T-Note (IEI), and more.

As a reminder, defensive stocks still tend to get hit when the market gets so bad that they throw out the baby with the bath water, but they usually start to fall less and less and are usually the first stocks that traders commit money to at the turns.  Defensive doesn’t mean immune.  Also, all of these are merely part of a partial list and the list could have easily been 3-times the size.   

Jon C. Ogg
June 8, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.