Del Monte's Earnings Blow Past Estimates

June 12, 2009

I recently raised Del Monte (DLM) to a Strong Buy in Portfolio Grader and it's easy to see why. The company just reported an outstanding quarter. Earnings from continuing operations came in at 35 cents a share, which was more than 34% higher than Wall Street's forecast.

This is another example of a company benefitting from soaring commodity prices, in this it's food inflation. The government's fiscal policies are hurting the dollar and that's causing commodity prices to rise. Del Monte's sales rose over 20% to $1.06 billion, which was more than 11% higher than Wall Street's consensus.

Del Monte said it sees FY2010 earnings from continuing ops coming in between 76 cents and 80 cents per share. The stock is an outstanding buy.

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