Top Dividends From Food and Your Belly (ARKR, EAT, WMK, SVU, SYY, CAG, KO, HNZ, KFT)

Dividends and income from your belly… We have decided to start taking some high-yield reviews of key sectors this week now that earnings season is past the half-way mark.  Dividends in food via restaurants, grocery chains, producers and even distributors and wholesalers are all easily obtainable for the income investor.  If the highest dividends were from large-cap stocks then it was left there.  If there was a small micro-cap then we included the outfits down to the closest mid-cap or large-cap or actively traded stocks.

Ark Restaurants Corp. (NASDAQ: ARKR) is a thin volume restaurant trade, with a micro-cap level and one with an active dividend that is very high with a 7.35% yield.  This $0.25 per quarter payout is also lower than it was paid from July 2007 to October 2008.  At $13.60, the 52-week range is $12.43 to $19.00 and the market cap here is only just shy of $50 million.

Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT) is the next on the list in public chain restaurants with a yield of 3.50%.  The owner of Chili’s and other chains has a $1.6 billion market cap after its $15.72 close on Friday, it trades almost 1.8 million shares, and its 52-week range is $12.39 to $21.12.  This new highest sector dividend is based upon a recently hiked payout from $0.11 to $0.14 per quarter after having a static dividend since December 2007.  The $0.56 annualized payout compares to Fiscal June-2011 earnings estimates of $1.41 EPS from Thomson Reuters, so it has ample dividend coverage.

Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE: WMK) is an unknown grocery store chain to most, but that is because it is a regional chain in and around Pennsylvania.  Its $0.29 per share dividend has been in place since early 2006 and gives off a dividend yield of 3.30%.  The $35.85 share price stock trades about 66,000 shares a day and it has a market cap of $964 million and a 52-week range of $30.51 to $38.32.

SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is the highest payout of the larger grocery chains with a 3.20% dividend yield.  The owner of Albertson’s, Jewel-Osco, and other grocery chains at $0.088 per quarter has a lower payout than it used to, recently saw a large drop in net income and said its CFO was leaving.  At $11.28, its trades over 4 million shares a day and has a market cap of about $2.4 billion; its 52-week range is $10.40 to $17.89.

Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) leads the food distribution and wholesale companies with a 3.20% dividend yield.  At $30.97 and an $18+ billion market cap it has a 52-week trading range of $23.41 to $31.99.  The $0.25 dividend has been the same for each of the last three quarters and the company has a habit of hiking its payouts each four quarters.  Earnings estimates for Fiscal June-2011 are $2.03 EPS from Thomson Reuters.

ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is classified as a packaged food player but in many cases is also considered a large wholesaler per its stock classification.  Its market cap is $10.4 billion and the $23.48 share price generates a yield of about 3.4%  Its 52-week range is $19.00 to $26.32.

In soft drinks, water, and beverages, The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) takes the lead as having the highest dividend yield at 3.20%.  The DJIA component trades at $55.11 and has a 52-week range of $47.42 to $59.45.  It’s Coke!  What more needs to be said?

Of the large diversified food producers, there was a virtual tie between H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ) and Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT).  Heinz is the one that recently raised its dividend to $0.45 from $0.42 per quarter and the stock trades with a yield of 4.04% based upon a price of $44.48; its 52-week trading range is $37.30 to $47.84. Kraft Foods has recently changed its business with the Cadbury deal and its $0.29 dividend has been static since Summer-2008.  At $29.21, its yield comes to 3.97% and its 52-week range is $25.72 to $31.09.

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JON C. OGG