- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Amended Berkshire Hathaway Filing Indicates No Secret Stock Stakes at End of Q3
- Buffett's Wealth and Fame Hasn't Helped 'Warren' As a Name
- CNBC VIDEO: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' at Columbia University
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: Curbing Fed's Independence Could Lead to 'Mischief'
- Warren Buffett to Co-Chair Goldman Sachs Program to Help Small Businesses
- Warren Buffett: 'Reasonable Return is Good Enough' for Long-Haul Railroad Ride
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Almost Doubles Wal-Mart Holdings During Summer
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Portfolio Snapshot Coming Later Today
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
RSS FEED
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- US Treasury Wants Banks to Do More to Ease Mortgages
- Fed Audit Would Hurt Economic Prospects: Bernanke
- Next Week: Cash In Now Or Wait For A Santa Rally?
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Big US Banks May Be Forced to Raise Capital: Bove
- Bank of America Amends Pay for Senior Executives
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
Warren Buffett Watch
Text Size 
 |
AP Oreo Cookies, one of Kraft Foods' strong brands, that presumably helped attracted Warren Buffett's buying interest in the company's stock |
Kraft Foods Current Price: [KFT
Loading...
()
]
Buffett's Kraft Foods stake also helped push other food stocks higher in what one portfolio manager calls a "bit of a halo effect" for the sector that often accompanies news of a Berkshire buy. Bullish forecasts and earnings from H.J. Heinz [HNZ
Loading...
()
], Hormel Foods [HRL
Loading...
()
] and Campbell Soup [CPB
Loading...
()
] also point to better pricing power for the industry, which has been hit by rising agricultural commodity costs.
Edward Jones analyst Matt Arnold tells Reuters that Kraft "is a company with leading, high-quality brands with depressed margins (that) offers significant value if management can restore profitability and drive the top line with product innovation."
Well-known and highly-respected brands, like Kraft's Oreo cookies and Oscar Mayer hot dogs are important to what Buffett calls a company's "durable competitive advantage", a key factor he looks for when buying into a business. (See, for example, his "crazy" 1988 bargain buy into Coca-Cola (now worth almost $12 billion) and his Gillette-generated holdings in Procter and Gamble (now worth about $7 billion.)
On CNBC's Squawk Box this morning, Buffett book author Andrew Kilpatrick of Wachovia Securities, noted that strong brand names "don't appear on a balance sheet" but are valuable nonetheless. Citigroup's Tobias Levkovich also found Buffett's recent interest in large-caps to be interesting.
Another big positive for Buffett is a strong, trustworthy management. Kraft Food spokesman says, "We're pleased with Buffett's vote of confidence... It signals he thinks we are doing the right thing." The company is in the middle of a multi-year turnaround plan under CEO Irene Rosenfeld. (Activist investor Nelson Peltz got some board members after he challenged Kraft's strategy last year.)
Berkshire Hathaway's Current Price: [US;BRK.A
Loading...
()
]
Questions? Comments? Email me at
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes