What a difference a day makes. I wrote my opening salvo in this duel over the weekend, before Wrigley's
In fact, it seems that my dueling partner Seth Jayson largely agrees with me. After all, his calculation pegged Wrigley's fair value at around $45-$50 a share. As a confessed value hound, Seth knows as well as anyone that a fair-value calculation is an approximation at best. Even after its Monday spike, Wrigley finished the day at $53.23 -- a mere 6.5% above the top end of his valuation range. If that's the best the bear can come up with, then the future really does look bright for the chewing-gum champ.
As for Wrigley's supposed recent financial issues, much of it seems due to the one-time impact of the Altoids and Life Savers acquisition from Kraft
In any event, with its recent earnings announcement, it's clear that Wrigley is successfully digesting its sugary-sweet acquisition. Whatever toothache the purchase may have caused, it was apparently short-lived and easy to cure.
Duel on!
- Read the bull argument
- Read the bear argument
- Read the bearish rebuttal
- Sound off on Wrigley in Motley Fool CAPS
- Vote for the winner
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At the time of publication, Fool contributor Chuck Saletta did not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.