Market Currents

• Thursday, December 3, 2009

• 15:42 PM William Ackman's latest Pershing Square update reports big gains for the firm (its flagship fund is up 24% for the first nine months) as well as a big push into Nestlé (NSRGY.PK). Comment!

• Sunday, November 22, 2009

• 17:46 PM Not to be left out, Nestle (NSRGY.PK) is thought to be considering a bid for Cadbury (CBY) to challenge Kraft's (KFT) $16.7B hostile offer and a potential counterbid by Hershey (HSY). One analyst says Nestle could "blow Kraft out of the water" if it ops to execute an option to sell its majority stake in Alcon (ACL) to Novartis (NVS) for more than $20B come January. 4 Comments

• Monday, November 16, 2009

• 17:25 PM A Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) regulatory filing shows it nearly doubled its stake in Wal-Mart (WMT), to 37.8M shares valued around $1.86B. The company also took new stakes in Nestle (NSRGY.PK) and Exxon Mobil (XOM), and increased its stake in Wells Fargo (WFC). 1 Comment

• Wednesday, October 28, 2009

• 13:48 PM Moody's lowers its outlook on Nestle's (NSRGY.PK) Aa1 rating to negative from stable, affecting about $8B in long-term debt: "The negative outlook reflects the currently weak positioning of Nestle in its rating category combined with the continuation of a shareholder-friendly financial policy and, in particular, the recent announcement that share buybacks will be accelerated in 2009." 1 Comment

• Wednesday, April 22, 2009

• 07:12 AM Nestle (NSRGY.PK): Q1 sales of 25.2B francs (-2.1%), short of 26B consensus. Organic sales were up 3.8% vs. 4.2% consensus. The shortfall was in part due to customers abandoning premium brands in favor of discount alternatives. Shares -0.2% in Zurich. (Bloomberg) Comment!

• Thursday, February 19, 2009

• 07:20 AM Nestle (NSRGY.PK): Strong underlying 2008 sales growth of 8.3%. FY net profit +69% to 18B Swiss francs ($15.35B) vs. consensus 20B francs. Sales +2.2%. Dividend +4.8% to 1.40 francs/share and will buy back around 4B francs of shares. Comment!

• Friday, February 13, 2009

• 05:38 AM Trying to shake its pricey image, Starbucks (SBUX) will unveil instant coffee Via, available starting next month. The coffee will be up against well-established competitors like Nestle's (NSRGY.PK) Nescafe and Kraft's (KFT) Sanka. (previously) 1 Comment

• Wednesday, January 28, 2009

• 13:23 PM Sales of supermarket own-brand products are surging as savvy shoppers look to save money. Safeway (SWY) is even selling its healthy own-label range through other retailers. Something branded companies like Unilever NV (UN) and Nestle (NSRGY.PK) should be thinking about. 1 Comment

• Thursday, October 23, 2008

• 13:16 PM "We're not in talks with Hershey (HSY)," Nestle (NSRGY.PK) CEO Paul Bulcke says, commenting on speculation Nestle may be interested in the North American chocolate and confectionary giant. Comment!
• 04:39 AM Nestle (NSRGY.PK) posts a better-than-expected rise in nine-month sales to 81.4B Swiss francs ($69.75B), and raises its 2008 organic growth forecast to 'about 8%' from an earlier target of at least 7.4%. Adjusted underlying sales rose a strong 8.9%. Shares +7.1% in Zurich trading. Comment!

• Monday, September 22, 2008

• 15:05 PM Nestle (NSRGY.PK) and Hershey Foods (HSY +7.5%) are in talks about a (25%) stake. Cadbury (CBY), which could use HSY's U.S. presence, is down 2.9%. Comment!

• Thursday, August 7, 2008

• 06:22 AM Food giant Nestle (NSRGY.PK) reports H1 net profits of 5.2B Swiss francs (+6.1%) and revenue of 53.1B francs (+3.8%), despite rising input and transportation costs. Nestle plans to spend 9B francs this year buying back shares. [Bloomberg] Comment!

• Tuesday, July 8, 2008

• 08:25 AM In its first stage of a $38B takeover of U.S. eye care company Alcon (ACL), Novartis AG (NVS) paid Nestle SA (NSRGY.PK) $10.4B for a 25 percent stake. That's about $200M less than when the deal was originally announced in April. Comment!

• Tuesday, May 27, 2008

• 11:43 AM Jamba (JMBA) +13.2%. It launched a line of bottled juices and smoothies with Nestle (NSRGY.PK). TGT, WAG and SWY to sell the drinks. Comment!