Hillshire Brands Company (NYSE:HSH)

Long-term holder of SLE, since well before they spun off Coach. Missed Coach and opted for SLE, instead. Years of languishing aound and below $20/share lead me to predict no price appreciation after HSH bottomed out. Competition, fluctuating commodity prices, already high prices on sliced meats are detractors; positive factors are brand recognition and what appears to be a successful turnaround by shedding assets and paying down debt. Nice dividend payout while you wait but I still believe it will be hard pressed to outperform the S&P without some magic from management.

food demand & inflation

Mario Gabelli's first recommendation of the 2013 Barron's Roundtable is Hillshire Brands (HSH).

What I like about this stock:

- It's a spinoff (from Sara Lee), of course.

- It's a potential takeover target, as many spunoff companies ultimately are. Per Gabelli "Three or four companies were looking to buy Hillshire from Sara Lee before it was spun off.

- HSH is using its solid cash flow to rapidly pay down its $694 million in debt.

- Gabelli's Bottom Line, "The stock trades for $29 and change, and could be $35 to $50 a share two years out...It will be bought by someone. Meanwhile, management is doing a terrific job of getting back to basics."

- "The sausage market is growing by about 5% a year in the U.S." I really don't care about this statistic, but I found it funny for some reason :)

I doubt that I am going to put real money behind this idea, but I do believe that it will out-perform the S&P 500 going forward and I will add it to my CAPS portfolio.

Deej

Slow steady growth

Sara Lee breaking up again - I still have some Hanes Brands they spun off years ago. Shareholders like getting freebies but I think SLE would do better to sell its bakery unit and stick to meat and frozen. The numbers for bakery are not impressive and will drag the Hillshire/Sara Lee bachanal down to end up as a loser from its low price today.

the $3 dividend looks promising there giving soon

115. Sara Lee Corp (NYSE: SLE) is worth no more than $19.50. Seeing as how this is hovering just under $19, I'm delighted to downthumb this one. It's peaked about this high a few times earlier this year. Before that, it hasn't been this high since 2005 for a reason. I don't think that now is the time to buy, but the time to sell. Sara Lee is not a growth company but it is priced as if it is one. Thus, their present price suggests that this stalwart is transitioning into becoming a growth company. That's something I like to bet against.

http://beta.fool.com/bradford86/2012/01/03/price-market-part-21/

OUTPERFORM S&P

TW

ValueAct is second largest shareholder. (it is also their largest equity position)

its food

Strong Strong & beating there new high.Thumbs up

sle has very good products and div. it should go to $19

This stock used to hold steady at about $20/share. It was a dog for a long time. They have been restructuring now for about 2 years and it should start to pay off. Unfortunately, most of their brands are so-so and mature. Nonetheless, they should gradually get back to the $20 range (14-15 P/E) but don't expect a barn-burner unless I missed something.

Large Brand name recognition and a good price

coffee 50% of their business. hopefully seling parts to buy down debt and stock buy back 12.70 porice target.

Undervalued and underpriced

This dog of a stock will see immediate improvement from lower commodity and energy costs, which have fallen by half in just two months! SLE's products are recession proofed to a large extent (food!!!), so sales should hold the top line while expenses fall.

HAS THE BEST PRODUCT IN THAT LINE. HAS A SMALL DIVIDEND