petec Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 Well, the first thing that occurs to me is why the f are they paying a cash dividend? Agreed. They should be de-levering at speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaegi2011 Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 Well, the first thing that occurs to me is why the f are they paying a cash dividend? Because the CFO was still in high school when the financial crisis happened? :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 Well, the first thing that occurs to me is why the f are they paying a cash dividend? Agreed. They should be de-levering at speed. Uncle warren wants as much cash out as he can get as soon as he can get it. And if the company goes under, buy the debt at firesale prices, and end up exactly where he started but with less money on the table? Just guessing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhatKing Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 The reason all 3G investments (BUD, QSR, KHC) pay dividends is because they raise funds from outside investors, who need the dividends. Additionally KHC has a new CFO who is quite sharp with the pencil (the previous young CFO has left the company). While the dividend is not 100% safe, it is unlikely that they will do so until they exhaust other financial options. For example, they decided not to preserve "Investment grade" status on their debt, allowing them to keep debt levels high for an extended period. Fitch did cut them today to below IG. But they are still quite profitable, and do generate cash. If you listen to the Conf call, it appears that they have a reasonable plan to right the ship. A lot of the decline since yesterday was exacerbated because of the delay in their "Investor day" from March to May. The reason ostensibly is because they have a new Head of USA, who started Feb 3rd, and, they want to get his input into the 3 year plan that will be presented on Investor day. It seems a reasonable thing to do, because he will own the plan, and US is more than 70% of KHC business. But management, rightly, has been put into the "show me" cage by Wall Street, and so there is skepticism all around. There is blood on the street, and in that spirit I bought some yesterday, and may buy more today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpRaider Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 I thought it was "their money." As long as sharpening the pencil doesn't include fire sales of assets to reduce leverage while paying a dividend. If they cut the dividend to zero and were like this is stupid, we are going to pay down debt or invest in fixing Maxwell house and we can buyback stock opportunistically or do special dividends if an when we get the leverage under control, I would probably get real interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaegi2011 Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Looks like I spoke too soon... Fitch and S&P put KHC into HY territory. I get that there may be a silver lining here in terms of new CEO, etc. but I continue to believe that the business will be challenged, and now with their rating I think they're going to have a bear of a time getting funding from the market. HY investors will want protection (collateral, restrictions, etc.), and the current stack offers none right now. They've also pissed off the rating agencies by continuing the dividend policy (cannot be a coincidence that the downgrades happened the day after the earnings release, and I'm sure the company knew the downgrades were coming in advance), and that'll be a tough one to come back from if they could ever do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Investors are starting to get a glimpse into the ugly side of free money... way too much debt on lots of corporate balance sheets. Great in the early days (when overpaying for aquisitions or buying back massive amounts of stock). Definitely gives a Jolt Cola to earnings per share for a couple of years. Brutal when business results turn south (and get progressively worse due to structural issues). And what happens when we actually have a recession? I think i understand why many are calling the bottom rung of investment grade debt a bubble. Buffett completely missed this and he has a pretty good track record :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest roark33 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 This is such an important shift for KHC. I just think Buffett completely missed this. https://www.wsj.com/articles/grocers-wrest-control-of-shelf-space-from-struggling-food-giants-11582108202?mod=hp_lista_pos3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzCactus Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 Based on the current situation---people stocking up on groceries and that continuing for at least the next couple of months is anyone looking at this seriously. Nice dividend yield---Buffett backed and also only ~10% above 52 week low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpRaider Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 Yes. They said demand is strong and they are running extra shifts at factories. I was looking then I saw they took down all their LOC and it gave me pause. I understand wanting to have liquidity, but do I really want to be invested with people who see a potential big recession, which they came into with a crappy balance sheet which they were supposedly trying to clean up, who see trouble and say boom maximum leverage "now we're your problem, bank." Also while continuing to pay a dividend? I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 Yes. They said demand is strong and they are running extra shifts at factories. I was looking then I saw they took down all their LOC and it gave me pause. I understand wanting to have liquidity, but do I really want to be invested with people who see a potential big recession, which they came into with a crappy balance sheet which they were supposedly trying to clean up, who see trouble and say boom maximum leverage "now we're your problem, bank." Also while continuing to pay a dividend? I don't know. I don’t think demand will stay strong. When all these hoarding buys are completed and there hoarders see full shelves whilst they have 1/2 year of canned food in their pantry, they will stop buying. I give this another week and then it will be over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 Yes. They said demand is strong and they are running extra shifts at factories. I was looking then I saw they took down all their LOC and it gave me pause. I understand wanting to have liquidity, but do I really want to be invested with people who see a potential big recession, which they came into with a crappy balance sheet which they were supposedly trying to clean up, who see trouble and say boom maximum leverage "now we're your problem, bank." Also while continuing to pay a dividend? I don't know. I don’t think demand will stay strong. When all these hoarding buys are completed and there hoarders see full shelves whilst they have 1/2 year of canned food in their pantry, they will stop buying. I give this another week and then it will be over. I think the food $ split in the US between retail and food service (restaurants) is 50:50. It looks to me like restaurant spend is going to be weak for months. Yes, we are seeing a short term spike in retail right now as people stock up in case we go to full lock down. My guess is retail sales will stay elevated in the coming months (not at current levels but higher than PY levels). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzCactus Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 My thoughts are that if you agree that people are afraid of a recession and job loss they'll try to save money. With that said cooking at home is cheaper than either 1) picking up food and risking Coronavirus or 2) Getting it delivered and probably paying fees + tip. So if the 50:50 split between groceries turns to 75:25 or something of this sort that's going to be meaningful for several companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muscleman Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Q2 came out and I just noticed that they have 11 bn deferred income tax. I wonder how it works and how it can have such a huge amount of income tax deferred? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fareastwarriors Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200915006042/en/Lactalis-Group-Announces-Agreement-to-Acquire-Kraft-Heinz%E2%80%99s-Natural-Cheese-Division Kraft Heinz to sell part of cheese business to Lactalis in $3.2 billion deal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wabuffo Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 This appears to be the natural cheese (along with cultured) business in the US (this business was already sold in Canada, IIRC) - and does not appear to include the processed cheese segment (Velveeta, Cheez Whiz, Singles, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, etc) if I am reading the press release correctly. wabuffo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooDiligence Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 Mr. Salty gets sold off www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-02-11/kraft-heinz-s-planters-sale-should-please-warren-buffett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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