Campbell Soup leads food sector in blazing-hot Nielsen data

The latest Nielsen data highlights dramatically the pantry-loading effect by U.S. consumers.

Tracked channel growth by food company (dollar sales year-over-year for 4-week period ending April 4): Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) +68%, B&G Foods (NYSE:BGS) +66%, McCormick (NYSE:MKC) +63%, General Mills (NYSE:GIS) +63%, Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) +50%, Flower Foods (NYSE:FLO) +48%, Post Holdings (NYSE:POST) +42%, ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) +37%, Mondelez International (NASDAQ:MDLZ) +37%, Kellogg (NYSE:K) +37%, Nestle (OTCPK:NSRGY) +33%, Danone N.A. (OTCQX:DANOY) +25%, Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) +13%, Hershey +11%, Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) +0.7%.

All the food companies saw sales cool off during the last week of the tracking period from the pace of the three weeks prior.

Wells Fargo’s John Baumgartner on the sector: “Significant uncertainty abounds re: COVID’s prolonged impact but we expect Food to outperform vs. S&P and Staples peers given: (1) limited intl. supply chain risks vs. other S&P sectors, (2) benefits from increased at-home consumption, (3) defensive rotation/Food’s historical outperformance vs. S&P 500/Staples peers during economic dislocations.”

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3560622-campbell-soup-leads-food-sector-in-blazing-hot-nielsen-data