Stock Alert: Conagra Brands

Branded food company Conagra Brands, Inc. (CAG) is scheduled to report its third-quarter results today, March 31, before market open.

During the new coronavirus pandemic, as people prefer to eat at home, Conagra may benefit from a surge in demand for packaged foods.

Conagra produces a wide range of food products including cooking oil, frozen dinners, hot cocoa, hot dogs, peanut butter and many others. Some of ConAgra’s major brands include Act II, Hunt’s, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, Egg Beaters, Hebrew National.

On average 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $0.49 and revenue of $2.58 billion in the third quarter.

Conagra’s earnings have surpassed estimates in the last two quarters.

The company had narrowed its full-year outlook last month on softer than expected consumption for the company’s brands.

Conagra expects full-year adjusted earnings to be in the range of $2.00 to $2.07, down from the previous range of $2.07 to $2.17.

Sales growth guidance also was narrowed to 10%-10.5% from 12.4%- 12.9%.

Analysts have a consensus earnings estimate of $2.05 on revenue growth of 10.6% for the period.

Conagra touched its 52-week low of $22.83 on March 13, and has risen nearly 25% since then. Monday it was up $0.31 or 1.11% before closing at $28.23. CAG had recorded a 52-week high of $35.59.

WPP Group Issues Update On COVID-19 Impact; Withdraws 2020 Guidance

WPP Group plc (WPP.L,WPPGY) reported that, for the first two months of 2020, excluding Greater China, Group LFL revenue less pass-through costs was up 0.4%. For WPP as a whole, LFL revenue less pass-through costs was down 0.6%. WPP Group noted that its March performance was weaker, reflecting spread of virus and government containment actions. The Group has decided to withdraw its guidance for the fiscal year 2020.

The Board of WPP Group has suspended the 2019 final dividend of 37.3 pence per share. The Board has also decided to suspend the 950 million pounds share buyback. These two actions together will preserve approximately 1.1 billion pounds of cash, the Group said.

WPP Group expects its cost reduction measures will generate total in-year savings for 2020 of 700 million pounds to 800 million pounds. The members of the WPP executive committee, as well as the Board, have committed to taking a 20% reduction in their salaries or fees for an initial period of three months. Also, the Group is making a detailed assessment of further actions to reduce cost subject to the impact of the virus.

WPP Group will issue its trading update for the first quarter of 2020 on 29 April 2020.

Rotork To Suspend Dividend

Rotork Plc. (ROR.L) said that its board will withdraw the recommendation to pay the final dividend of 3.9 pence per share. It is unable to provide guidance for 2020 citing the unprecedented level of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company said it is taking steps to reduce the impact on our business. It includes a recruitment freeze, postponing salary increases, restricting discretionary spending and drawing on government wage replacement schemes and flexibility within the workforce.

De La Rue Plc Issues Trading Update – Quick Facts

De La Rue plc (DLAR.L) said its Board expects adjusted operating profit for financial year 2019/20 to be between 20 million pounds and 25 million pounds, as previously guided. Net debt at the end of fiscal 2019/20 is expected to be approximately 105 million pounds. The Group stated that it is progressing with its previously announced Turnaround Plan.

De La Rue plc is monitoring developments related to COVID-19. At present, it is too early to quantify the potential impact on fiscal year 2020/21, the Group noted.

Rescue flights, a lengthy lockdown & interpreting COVID-19 numbers

On this edition of the Sky News Daily podcast with Dermot Murnaghan, we discuss the government’s £75m deal to help Britons stranded abroad – a week since the UK was placed in lockdown.

We are joined by our health correspondent Ashish Joshi and virus expert Dr Ria Lina – plus we put the numbers into context with Sky’s data journalist Carmen Aguilar Garcia and former NHS consultant pathologist Dr John Lee.

Coronavirus: Philippines reports 10 new deaths, 538 more infections

MANILA (REUTERS) – The Philippines’ Health Ministry on Tuesday (March 31) recorded its single largest daily increase in coronavirus deaths and infections.

Ten more people died because of the outbreak, taking the total to 88, while 538 additional infections increased the total number of cases to 2,084, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

Happily ever after? What happened to Harry and Meghan

Al Gore Hammers Trump’s Coronavirus Lies: ‘You Can’t Gaslight A Virus’

Former Vice President Al Gore said he feels bad for supporters of President Donald Trump who’ve believed the misinformation coming from the White House over the COVID-19 coronavirus. 

“Those who follow him, I’m afraid many of them have been misled,” Gore said to CNN’s Don Lemon, noting Trump has claimed the virus would “disappear” and slammed criticism of his response as a “hoax” by Democrats and the media.

“I feel badly for those who believe that stuff and have not been protecting themselves,” he said. “And we still have states that have not adopted the kind of policies that Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and the real experts have advised partly because they’ve made it kind of a political partisan kind of issue.” 

But Gore said he’d rather move forward ― and saw encouraging signs from the president in that regard.

“I think the president to his credit has been moving away from that,” Gore offered. “I think he’s learned that you can’t gaslight a virus. You’ve really got to pay attention to what the scientific facts are.”

He said he didn’t want to trade “potshots” with Trump but would rather see him continue to make the changes he’s made since dismissing the virus.

See Gore’s full conversation with Lemon below: