Private label brand breakthrough: A survey released by Deloitte on brand loyalty could rattle the food and grocery sectors as a whopping 94% of consumers indicate they will stick with private-label or store brands instead of reverting back to costlier options. Industry insiders think even if the economy comes roaring back, a paradigm shift of consumer attitudes toward food purchases may already be entrenched. The trend could favor Treehouse Foods (THS), Safeway (SWY), Kroger (KR), Costco (COST), Whole Foods Market (WFM) - while creating a headache for Kellogg (K), Post Holdings (POST), Campbell Soup (CPB), Kraft Foods (KRFT), and General Mills (GIS). [View news story]
The national or name brands have accomplished their lead by having a superior product and people will return to them after a while. In tough times we dig in and do without or by cheaper, but when good times return the desire to treat ourselves to better for so few pennies extra that the name brands represent will not stop us from reverting to our favorites. Kellog et al will not put the same flakes in a private label that they will in their own branded containers.
The Brown/Vitter bill being rolled out in Congress is essentially Armageddon to the TBTF banks, says Goldman, seeing it as mandating another $1.1T in equity for the banking system. Banks would need 12 years of earnings to build this amount organically, though the bill would give just 5 - say goodbye to lending. Break up the banks? BAC, C, JPM, and WFC all have multiple divisions with more than $400M in assets - the level at which the bill gets tough on lenders. [View news story]
Strictly looking at figures T may be a good stock to own; however, if you look at T as a consumer, it is the last company one wants to deal with. They are not customer friendly and are destined to fail. No company can last forever treating its customers the way T does. I sold my stocks and would not want to own it again.
The SEC has said that JPMorgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS), as well as Citigroup (C), don't have to hold votes at their annual meetings on motions that would require them to consider "extraordinary transactions," including being broken up. The proposals came from labor and religious groups, with a motion from the AFL-CIO, for example, saying that JPM's $6B whaling loss had shown that it had become too big to manage. [View news story]
This is not good. All shareholder proposals should be put to a vote. Most of them are voted down by a large majority and the way things are now, voting is so rigged in director's and management's favor that in most instances they control. The best vote any of us have is to sell and vote with our feet.
Jeff Immelt's salary package climbed 19% to $25.8M in 2012, including a $12.1M long-term performance bonus. The pay rise is partly for increasing GE's (GE) EPS, which was helped by stock repurchases of $5.2B last year. Still, GE also had a total shareholder return of 21%, surpassing the S&P 500's 16%. Meanwhile, three longtime board members are stepping down, although former Avon CEO Andrea Jung is standing for re-election. [View news story]
Though I am an active stock investor, I realize, and hope you all do also, that this stock market is totally rigged against the investor. The CEO names his patsies to the board, the board names and elects the new CEO, they decide their and the CEO's pay and they appoint their cohorts between so called elections and then give us the choice to vote on the same exact number of people running for office as there are positions. They also are now forced to give us a non-binding (worthless) say on CEO pay. Imagine if Congress decided who would be President, V-P etc and we could only vote for 96 candidates for Senate with 96 seats, and ditto on number of House of Representatives. This is what is done to us as stockholders in a company. The only voice we have is with our feet. As far as Mr.Immelt is concerned, remember that when he took over company's helm stock was valued in upper $50 range. This tells me he is not worth any more than being shown the door. So much for Mr. Obama choosing him as a leader.
Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.2%) CEO Rex Tillerson will receive a bonus of $4.59M in cash and shares, up 5% Y/Y, with half paid in cash by year-end and the other half linked to the company's earnings, according to an SEC filing. Tillerson also will receive 225K restricted XOM shares, worth nearly $19.7M at today's price. XOM has gained ~3% YTD. [View news story]
It is time to give share owners a stronger voice on company operations including CEO pay. Elections to the BOD is a farce with same number of nominees as positions available and any vacancies filled by CEO and directors during year. Give us minimum of 1.5 candidates for election positions, let us vote out directors who do not represent shareholders and give us a binding vote on CEO salary and directors pay and benefits. Also, only allow owned shares to vote, not options given to directors, CEO, and other executives. Then and only then will we see directors who will truly represent the owners of the corporation. Most of us realize the true worth of a good CEO and are willing to pay the price.
Faced with increasing problems from garbage piling up in Seattle due to a week-old truck drivers' strike, plus the looming threat of fines, Waste Management (WM -0.2%) has decided to play hardball and begin hiring permanent replacement drivers, as well as temporarily expand its collection efforts to clean up the mess. Union workers walked off the job on July 25 and still haven't talked. The strike has affected hundreds of thousands of residents in the Puget Sound region of Washington. [View news story]
Another sad tale of unions hurting their members with false promises and hope. These WM employees will end up losing their jobs, be mad at WM, think their union is the greatest thing and then union reps will go around signing up new WM replacement workers and not suffer at all while old employees will have to settle for low paying jobs if any at all. Its happened before and until workers wise up to these unions will happen again. I agree with WM that if their employees do not want to work for wages offered, hire new employees; if wages that bad no one will want the jobs.
Private label brand breakthrough: A survey released by Deloitte on brand loyalty could rattle the food and grocery sectors as a whopping 94% of consumers indicate they will stick with private-label or store brands instead of reverting back to costlier options. Industry insiders think even if the economy comes roaring back, a paradigm shift of consumer attitudes toward food purchases may already be entrenched. The trend could favor Treehouse Foods (THS), Safeway (SWY), Kroger (KR), Costco (COST), Whole Foods Market (WFM) - while creating a headache for Kellogg (K), Post Holdings (POST), Campbell Soup (CPB), Kraft Foods (KRFT), and General Mills (GIS). [View news story]
The Brown/Vitter bill being rolled out in Congress is essentially Armageddon to the TBTF banks, says Goldman, seeing it as mandating another $1.1T in equity for the banking system. Banks would need 12 years of earnings to build this amount organically, though the bill would give just 5 - say goodbye to lending. Break up the banks? BAC, C, JPM, and WFC all have multiple divisions with more than $400M in assets - the level at which the bill gets tough on lenders. [View news story]
AT&T: A Toxic Aristocrat [View article]
The SEC has said that JPMorgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS), as well as Citigroup (C), don't have to hold votes at their annual meetings on motions that would require them to consider "extraordinary transactions," including being broken up. The proposals came from labor and religious groups, with a motion from the AFL-CIO, for example, saying that JPM's $6B whaling loss had shown that it had become too big to manage. [View news story]
Jeff Immelt's salary package climbed 19% to $25.8M in 2012, including a $12.1M long-term performance bonus. The pay rise is partly for increasing GE's (GE) EPS, which was helped by stock repurchases of $5.2B last year. Still, GE also had a total shareholder return of 21%, surpassing the S&P 500's 16%. Meanwhile, three longtime board members are stepping down, although former Avon CEO Andrea Jung is standing for re-election. [View news story]
and ditto on number of House of Representatives. This is what is done to us as stockholders in a company. The only voice we have is with our feet. As far as Mr.Immelt is concerned, remember that when he took over company's helm stock was valued in upper $50 range. This tells me he is not worth any more than being shown the door. So much for Mr. Obama choosing him as a leader.
Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.2%) CEO Rex Tillerson will receive a bonus of $4.59M in cash and shares, up 5% Y/Y, with half paid in cash by year-end and the other half linked to the company's earnings, according to an SEC filing. Tillerson also will receive 225K restricted XOM shares, worth nearly $19.7M at today's price. XOM has gained ~3% YTD. [View news story]
Faced with increasing problems from garbage piling up in Seattle due to a week-old truck drivers' strike, plus the looming threat of fines, Waste Management (WM -0.2%) has decided to play hardball and begin hiring permanent replacement drivers, as well as temporarily expand its collection efforts to clean up the mess. Union workers walked off the job on July 25 and still haven't talked. The strike has affected hundreds of thousands of residents in the Puget Sound region of Washington. [View news story]