Accentuating the caveat emptor perspective with critical commentary on financial disclosure. I adopt a skeptical persona and look for chinks in the teflon coating of financial disclosure. My job is to identify financial warts. Perhaps a Black Swan. Disclosure: I do not hold positions in stocks mentioned for three trading days before or after blog post.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Campbell - Not Soup
Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) reported Q3 results showing softer sales and top line numbers. They made much about comparables and discontinued lines of business. They also let it be known that marketing costs where cut dramatically in North America soups but the margins improved quite nicely. The question that Campbell Soup is avoiding is “If in this recession people are cutting back on soup what does that really mean for your business model” This is not just product line fluctuation. Is management focused on the fundamentals or are they fixated on the financial engineering?