Like a banana just starting to show some brown spots, Fresh Del Monte (NYSE:FDP) has some appeal to me, but only on a limited basis. Not only is this a brutally competitive business with razor-thin margins, but it's also beholden to the vagaries of weather, crop disease, international trade policies, and fuel and energy costs.
Although sales were up a solid 21% in this Motley Fool Hidden Gems pick's third quarter, that figure still fell just short of the average estimate. Likewise, margins were a good news/bad news proposition. Gross profit was up strongly, and gross margins improved, but higher expenses eroded the operating margin down to about one-half of one percent. Turning to profits, earnings per share were much improved over last year (excluding a year-ago tax benefit) but below expectations on that higher spending.
I've come to expect that the performance of individual business segments will be a mixed bag from one quarter to the next. In this quarter's case, melon and banana sales were strong (though margins weren't), but pineapples declined. The prepared-foods business was also cause for concern as sales dipped 20% sequentially and gross profits eroded.
The prepared-foods business seems to be the culprit for at least some of the company's issues with operating performance this quarter. The company is spending some hefty promotional money to help grow this business, and in time, it could be a good investment. The company has had a good experience with Wendy's (NYSE:WEN) as a major customer, which suggests to me that securing other large clients (maybe even as large as Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)) could be worth the effort.
All the same, I'm in no rush to buy these shares. Competitors such as Dole and Chiquita (NYSE:CQB) keep a lid on profits, and I'm not entirely thrilled with the limited information management offers investors (for instance, no balance sheet or cash flow statement in the release). When all's said and done, I'd need a real bargain-basement price to entice me to buy, and I just don't see that yet.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
