Yummy Times at Campbell.
Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) served up some tasty third-quarter results today. Higher sales and earnings made investors hungry for shares, sending them up 5% in the face of a down market.
Revenues for the ubiquitous soup brand rose 17% to $1.6 billion. Net income increased even more, jumping 34% to $129 million. Per share, Campbell's cooked up $0.31, ahead of estimates by four cents.
The company has found a sweet mix of innovative products and better-marketed old favorites to boost its shipment volume. Worldwide Q3 wet-soup shipments were up 9%, with growth here in the U.S. up 10%. It was only a few years ago that Campbell looked as watered down as off-brand chicken noodle, with soup sales and volume stagnating. CEO Douglas Conant, who has been on the job for over two years now, has solidly turned the company around.
Sales for its North American soup operations improved 16% over last year, to $600 million. Operating earnings increased 32% for the division, thanks to lower promotional spending and better products.
Campbell is giving Americans more of what they want from food -- increased convenience and ease -- and customers are responding. Its "Soup at Hand," for instance, is a drinkable soup that was introduced last fall. To capitalize on its success, Campbell is adding new flavors to the line this year.
Campbell is addressing customers' convenience in other crucial ways, too. It's moving its entire line of condensed soups to easy-open lids and is rolling out a new product shelving distribution system for grocery stores, which should make shopping for soup a quicker and more efficient process.
Let's not forget that in addition to its extensive soup lineup, Campbell owns Godiva and Pepperidge Farm. It's been very innovative with the "Goldfish" cracker brand, introducing more varieties of them than there are fish in the sea. You can get purple-colored Goldfish, baby Goldfish, giant Goldfish, and Goldfish infused with "extreme" flavors.
It's a veritable Goldfish bonanza, and it's working for Campbell. Sales for the unit housing Godiva and Pepperidge Farm shot up 22% in the quarter, to $434 million.
Campbell is looking for more of the same in the coming quarters, with new products scheduled to launch soon. It anticipates earning between $1.49 and $1.51 for its fiscal year. That represents earnings-per-share growth over the prior year of 16.4% to 17.96%. Trading at a P/E of 15, then, Campbell and its innovative ways look tasty.
Buy Campbell's merchandise at CampbellShop.com.
[The Motley Fool]
2:22:33 PM 
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