Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of food manufacturer B&G Foods (NYSE: BGS) were hotter than a piping bowl of Cream of Wheat, rising as much as 16% in intraday trading after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings.

So what: Sales for the fourth quarter rose 4.6% to $141.9 million, above the $138.9 million that Wall Street had projected for the quarter. Net income soared compared to last year when the bottom line was bitten by some hefty one-time costs. Adjusted earnings per share clocked in at $0.28 and decisively stomped the $0.20 average analyst estimate. The company's gains were driven largely by higher volume, a mix shift to more profitable products, and a decrease in commodity costs.

Now what: Top that strong quarter with a projected EBITDA range of $123 million to $126 million for 2011 -- comfortably above the analysts' estimated $121.6 million -- and you've got a very pretty picture. In fact, there's a lot to like at B&G right now. According to one analyst, the company has done so well hedging commodity prices that cost inflation will be a very minor issue in the year ahead. That's not exactly the experience at other food and beverage companies like PepsiCo(NYSE: PEP) and Sara Lee(NYSE: SLE) where commodity costs are talked about like the monster under the bed. In addition, dividend lovers have to appreciate the fact that B&G's board just raised the company's payout 24%, giving the stock a cool 5.6% yield.

Of course even with all this nutritious financial goodness at the company, investors still may want to tread carefully -- the stock is pretty richly priced at more than 19 times trailing EPS.

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