Which Top 5 Food Stocks have the Strongest Earnings Trends After General Mills Earnings?

March 23, 2013

Page 1 of 5

Earnings trends are extremely important when evaluating stocks. At Wall St. Cheat Sheet, we view increasing earnings quarter-over-quarter as a simple way to gauge whether costs and the business model are stable. Then we like to analyze whether the company is outperforming peers in the sector. This is what we call the “E-Squared” investment analysis (‘E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter’ + ‘E = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector’).

Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. Click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now!

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to how the top 5 food stocks rank via earnings trends:

Kellogg (NYSE:K): Current Price $63.43

Fiscal Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Revenue ($) in millions	12,820	12,580	12,400	13,200	14,200
Diluted EPS ($)	2.99	3.16	3.40	2.38	2.67

Though profits at Kellogg fell off after 2010, we still like that they are back on the growth path in 2012.

Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data:

Quarter	Dec. 31, 2011	Mar. 31, 2012	Jun. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2012
Revenue ($) in millions	3,015	3,440	3,474	3,720	3,563
Diluted EPS ($)	-0.36	1.00	0.84	0.82	0.01

Unfortunately, we reject the company for the dismal EPS number in the December 2012 quarter.

Page 1 of 5

view all

To contact the reporter on this story: staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: editors@wallstcheatsheet.com