Latest news with #consumerbrands
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dogs of the Dow: Why Procter & Gamble (PG) is a Pillar of Dividend Stability
The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) is included among the 11 Dogs of the Dow Dividend Stocks to Buy Now. A happy couple viewing the products of this household and personal product company in a mass merchandiser store. The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) owns several leading consumer brands like Pampers and Tide— products that are considered essentials for many households. While there's always a possibility that consumers could opt for cheaper, generic alternatives, recent sales figures don't indicate any major shift in buying behavior that would pose a serious threat to the business. The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) is considered one of the most reliable dividend stocks in the market. Its stability comes from a wide range of top-tier brands in areas like beauty, health, grooming, home care, and family care. Thanks to strong customer loyalty and an efficient global supply chain, the company regularly posts profit margins that outperform many competitors. The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)'s long-standing financial strength is further proven by its impressive 69 consecutive years of dividend increases, which is one of the longest growth streaks among publicly traded companies. On July 8, the company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.0568 per share, in line with its previous dividend. With a dividend yield of 2.67% as of July 26, PG is among the best dogs of the Dow. While we acknowledge the potential of PG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tylenol parent Kenvue has a new CEO, and he has lots of work to do to mollify activist investors
Two years ago, when Johnson & Johnson announced it was spinning off its consumer brands including Tylenol, Band-Aid, Motrin, Sudafed, and Neutrogena into a new company called Kenvue, investor anticipation was high. The thinking was simple: The company was packed with household names that had room to grow, untethered from all the problems of the J&J mothership. Kenvue shares rose 22% in their trading debut in May 2023. But the honeymoon was short-lived. Barely 15 months after the spinoff, activist investors tired of anemic growth, started to demand change. Since last autumn, Starboard, Third Point Capital and Toms Capital Investment Management have all pressured the company to find ways to accelerate growth and increase profit margins. All that culminated on Monday with the abrupt resignation of Kenvue CEO Thibaut Mongon, his replacement by board director Kirk Perry on an interim basis, and the confirmation that Kenvue is undertaking a strategic review in the hopes of 'optimizing' a sprawling portfolio and boosting profitability. 'Kenvue has world-class brands in attractive categories and a strong global platform. The actions announced today are to ensure we have the right talent, brand portfolio and operational foundation to fully capitalize on those strengths, accelerate profitable growth and best position the Company for future success,' said Larry Merlo, Kenvue's chair and the former CEO of CVS Health. The leadership shakeup comes on the heels of a rough earnings call. Kenvue announced on Monday that in its most recent quarter, it expects net sales to fall 4%, continuing a downward trend. As a result of that weak performance, shares fell from their all time high of about $27 in 2023 to around $21.25 today. In contrast, the S&P 500 has risen more than 40% in the last two years. Kenvue's challenges stem from the same factors that created so much optimism at its debut. J&J spun off its consumer business to focus on its highly profitable pharmaceutical businesses, much as Merck, Sanofi, Pfizer and GSK had in previous years. The goal was to streamline J&J, not make Kenvue's portfolio composition ideal from the start. The practice is not unusual in corporate America; spinoffs are often repositories for brands the parent company did not want. But Kenvue struggled to balance and diversify its own brand portfolio, and figure out a formula that would work outside of the J&J umbrella. In retrospect, a boosterish comment from Mongon on the day of the spinoff, who had been leading J&J's consumer business since 2019, seems like a warning sign. 'We are the only company of our size covering all of consumer health,' Mongon said in 2023. Fortune was unable to reach Mongon for comment. Ultimately, the activists pressuring Kenvue to sell off some brands, or even consider selling itself entirely (its market capitalization is $40 billion) have prevailed. Last month, Reuters reported that Kenvue was focusing on its marquee brands like Neutrogena, and considering selling many others including Clean & Clear, Maui Moisture, Neostrata, its German baby care brand Bebe, and Japanese brand With Perry at the helm now, Kenvue has a leader who is a veteran of Procter & Gamble, and intimately familiar with periodic portfolio resets that activists have clamored for. But Kenvue's shares barely budged after the CEO and strategic overview news. That suggests investors are not expecting Perry—or whoever becomes permanent CEO—to turn things around quickly. This story was originally featured on
Bloomberg
14-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Buffett's Kraft Heinz Bet Marks a Rare Flop as Company Weighs Breakup
Warren Buffett touted the chance to bring 'iconic brands together' in 2015 when he backed the creation of Kraft Heinz Co. The plans to split up many of those brands a decade later represent a rare flop for the famed investor. Kraft Heinz shares are down more than 60% — while the broader stock market soared — since Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. teamed up with private equity firm 3G Capital to merge the two consumer companies. Berkshire's roughly 27% stake in the company is worth about $4.5 billion less than where it's marked on its books, and getting out now would bring even more pain.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Warren Buffett Has $65.8 Billion Invested in These 4 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks. Here's the Best of the Bunch.
Many of Buffett's core positions in financial services and consumer brands stand to benefit from AI. Berkshire's direct AI positions include consumer electronics maker Apple and e-commerce behemoth Amazon. Buffett also has exposure to Cisco and Qualcomm through his portfolio at New England Asset Management. 10 stocks we like better than Amazon › Warren Buffett did not build Berkshire Hathaway into a market-beating financial services powerhouse by investing in high-risk growth stocks. As a value investor, Buffett is a master at identifying quality businesses that have been discounted by the broader market. For these reasons, technology stocks have seldom earned a spot in Buffett's portfolio. And with the stock market trading at all-time highs and valuations -- particularly in the technology sector -- becoming ever-more stretched, it's surprising to see that Buffett has any exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) whatsoever. Let's explore four AI stocks that have garnered interest from Buffett and his team. From there, I'll detail how the Oracle of Omaha has been investing in these companies, and reveal which one I see as the top pick. Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio holds a number of stocks in the financial services and consumer defensive industries. Many of these companies such as Coca-Cola, , Visa, Mastercard, Capital One, and Constellation Brands stand to benefit from rising investment in AI, but none provides direct exposure to the upside artificial intelligence presents. The only two direct AI investments held in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio are Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Despite trimming his exposure to the iPhone maker considerably over the past year, Apple remains Berkshire's largest position -- currently worth about $63.6 billion. Amazon is a considerably smaller position, worth roughly $2.2 billion at current market prices. Through a series of acquisitions, New England Asset Management (NEAM) became a subsidiary of Berkshire in the late 1990s. While Buffett does not necessarily influence the decision-making over at NEAM, stocks that are owned by the fund are technically a part of his portfolio, too. NEAM owns a number of AI stocks, but the two that stuck out to me are Qualcomm and Cisco Systems. To be fair, these are relatively small positions -- totaling only $15 million between the two of them. As these trends illustrate, Cisco and Qualcomm trade at significant discounts to other chip and AI infrastructure players on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) basis -- potentially signaling a good value relative to their peers in the AI landscape. As I alluded to, Berkshire has been reducing its exposure to Apple for quite some time. According to 13F filings, Berkshire has sold more than 489 million shares of Apple since the first quarter of 2024 -- trimming its position by 62%. By contrast, Berkshire's Amazon position has remained unchanged. During the first quarter, NEAM reduced its Cisco position by 12% and increased its exposure to Qualcomm by 1%. I wouldn't read too much into NEAM's decisions to trim Cisco and add to Qualcomm. Both positions are small relative to NEAM's overall portfolio size. Moreover, while Cisco and Qualcomm each have the opportunity to benefit from AI, I think their upside is limited compared to other opportunities. The reason I say that is because their respective businesses are more specialized and niche; therefore, their growth prospects may not be as attractive as other multiplatform companies such as Nvidia or Broadcom. Regarding Apple, Buffett's decision to sell when he did looks like a genius move in hindsight. For more than a year now, Apple's foray into the AI landscape has been quite muted. While other tech titans such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Oracle, and Amazon have been striking strategic partnerships left and right with OpenAI and Anthropic and making splashy acquisitions, Apple has largely remained on the sidelines -- calling into question how robust the company's future growth really is. Despite its relatively small exposure, I see Berkshire's investment in Amazon as its best AI stock overall. In addition to Buffett, Amazon has earned spots in Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Portfolio and is a core AI position in Cathie Wood's exchange-traded funds (ETF) over at Ark Invest. Amazon has already been leveraging AI in its cloud services platform -- Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- and is currently integrating AI-powered robotics to help bring a new wave of efficiency to the company's warehouse and fulfillment center logistics platforms. I think Amazon has only scratched the surface in how AI can transform its ecosystem, and I see the stock as a compelling value for investors with a long-term time horizon, such as Buffett. Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,010,880!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Cisco Systems, Mastercard, Microsoft, Moody's, Nvidia, Oracle, Qualcomm, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom, Capital One Financial, and Constellation Brands and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Warren Buffett Has $65.8 Billion Invested in These 4 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks. Here's the Best of the Bunch. was originally published by The Motley Fool
Reuters
10-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Froot Loops maker WK Kellogg agrees to $3.1 billion deal from Italy's Ferrero
July 10 (Reuters) - WK Kellogg (KLG.N), opens new tab on Thursday agreed to be bought by the owner of Ferrero Rocher in a deal worth around $3.1 billion, uniting two of the world's most recognizable consumer brands to weather a tough spending backdrop marked by persistent inflation. Deal making in the snacking space has picked up pace as food brands battle with muted sales in the wake of price hikes owing to higher input costs and a shift in consumer preference for healthier options. Kellanova, which was created at the same time as WK Kellogg when Kellogg Company split into two, is also in the process of being acquired by candy giant Mars in a nearly $36 billion deal. Shares of WK Kellogg jumped 30.6% at $22.85 in mid-day trading on Thursday, nearly matching the premium that Ferrero's $23 per share deal represented. The acquisition, Ferrero's biggest since 2018, will bring legacy brands such as Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and Special K under one roof when the transaction closes, expectedly in the second half of 2025. "WK Kellogg's (acquisition) gives it diversification from its cocoa heavy portfolio and instant U.S. distribution, shelf space, and a brand portfolio ... in a lucrative market that it can drizzle with innovation at a relatively good price," Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer of Running Point Capital Advisors said. Strong demand and strained supply had pushed cocoa prices to a record high last year, sparking concerns among companies that use the chocolate-making ingredient for packaged food items. Several U.S. packaged food companies, including J.M. Smucker (SJM.N), opens new tab, Kraft Heinz (KHC.O), opens new tab and PepsiCo (PEP.O), opens new tab, have also been hit by uncertainties sparked by President Donald Trump's erratic trade policy. More recently, they even came under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again Commission to eliminate the use of synthetic dyes. Ferrero, the maker of Nutella hazelnut spread, has turned into a global group, boosted by the aggressive acquisition campaign launched by its executive chairman, Giovanni Ferrero. In 2018, Ferrero bought Nestle's (NESN.S), opens new tab U.S. confectionery business for $2.8 billion. The group reported a turnover of 18.4 billion euros ($19.2 billion) in the financial year ending on August 31 and said it had increased its investments to boost manufacturing capabilities and expand across categories.
