Packaged Foods & Meats

Deutsche Bank cut its price target for Smithfield Foods Inc. (NYSE: SFD) from $24 to $21 this morning. It also reduced its fiscal 2011 EPS estimate to $1.72 from $2.06. Deutsche bank is "concerned that the salesforce (incentivized by volume) will need to resort to pricing in order to recover... the...

GDP growth is expected to remain lower than anticipated. This view has been voiced by Sarat Sethi, partner and portfolio manager at Douglas C. Lane & Associates. In an interview with CNBC, he advised investors to avoid Industrials and commodity stocks. He added, “Even if the economy improves,...

• Pier 1 (NYSE:PIR) posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings of 7 cents a share, up from Zacks consensus of a 2 cent loss, on revenues of $306.3 million, above Zacks estimates of $305 million • Smithfield Foods (NYSE:SFD) reported in-line fourth quarter earnings of 18 cents a share, on...

Unilever plc (NYSE: UL) was downgraded by BofA/Merrill from “buy” to “neutral.” UL’s shares closed at $28.46 yesterday. Unilever’s earnings may fell by 32.59% this year. BofA/Merrill downgraded BP Plc (NYSE: BP) from “buy” to “neutral.” BP’s shares closed at $31.85 yesterday. BP’s earnings are...

Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are: Wall Street expects Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) to post its Q1 loss at $0.03 per share. PIR’s shares gained 0.50% to $8.06 in after hours trading. Analysts are expecting Smucker (NYSE: SJM) to have earned $0.80 per share in the fourth...

In an interview with CNBC, John Dorfman, portfolio manager at Dorfman Value Fund, said that the signs indicate that the markets and economy are on the right track. He also pointed out that firms are boosting their dividends. According to Dorfman, raising dividend rates indicates that the firms are...

• Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) posted fiscal first quarter earnings of 36 cents a share, versus Zacks estimates of 50 cents, on revenues of $10.8 billion which came in below estimates of $10.95 billion • CBOE Holdings (NASDAQ:CBOE) priced its initial offering late Monday at the top end of its $27-$29 range...

A lot of times things in the stock market make little sense.  For example, coffee and sugar are rallying - coffee at a 23 month high.  So how do you play that?  According to CNBC's Joe Terranova on Fast Money - you buy a company who sells do it yourself coffee in the U.S.  A sensible connection? (...

Nestle SA (OTC: NSRGY) has filed a lawsuit in a French court against rival Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE). Nestle SA claims in the lawsuit that patents covering its Nespresso coffee machine have been infringed upon by Sara Lee's (SLE) introduction to the market of popular single-serve coffee capsules...

A week ago on Tuesday all the world was going to hell in a hand basket, US employment stunk, copper was at 6 month lows, and the S&P was falling to yearly lows.  Not 4 sessions later all is great in the world because the stock market bounced.  Boo yah bipolar world... The Ryanair (RYAAY) short...

Deutsche Bank analyst Eric Katzman maintained a Buy rating on The J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM). Katzman said, "We expect F4Q10 (end Apr) EPS of $0.79 vs. $1.02 last year on 1% sales decrease...There will be focus on F4Q10 results, but we expect most attention to be placed on F2011 guidance....

Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGSI) recently submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking marketing approval for its potential blockbuster lupus drug candidate, Benlysta. Human Genome and GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) are co-developing Benlysta for...

Analysts at Morgan Stanley initiate coverage of Sanderson Farms Inc (NASDAQ: SAFM) with an "equal weight" rating. SAFM’s shares soared 3.84% to close at $52.23 yesterday. More Analyst Ratings here