David Livingston

Food Stocks Bite the Dust

I think for the most part that food stocks are safe. If you are only looking at stock price, then the stocks are as risky as anything else and subject to fluctuations. But just forget about stock price today and in the next couple of years. If you are buying stocks today then its probably for the long run. We could be in this depression for years to come. Maybe 10-15 years from now you might be very happy you bought some food stocks that are paying nice dividends while you wait for a recovery.

Analysts Can't Agree on Grocery Sector Outlook

I agree that the analyst all have their own agenda and many are regularly wrong.

Unfortunately for the analysts, the grocers that are doing the best are privately held. The smartest people in the industry typically work for the best run privately held grocers.

The stock market, individual grocery stocks, and how well a grocery is actually doing operations wise, are much of the time mutually exclusive events. A grocer can be doing quite well, but if the stock is selling off, the price dives. A grocer can be doing poorly but if some analyst can find a reason to promote the stock, they will, and the price will rise for a day or two.

Many analyst only make their assessments on public documents, conference calls, and executive interviews. Those are probably the three worst sources of information.