Icahn Protégé is Cashing Out of Ralcorp Holdings (RAH)

The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN) is up over 50% year to date after beating earnings each of the last four quarters. Hain trades in the mid-range of the industry at 26x trailing earnings and with the highest 5-year expected earnings growth rate of 17%. Worth noting is that like other major food packaging companies, Hain does not pay a dividend. Hain Celestial calls billionaire and corporate raider Carl Icahn as its top fund owner with over 7 million shares (see Carl Icahn’s biggest bets).

ConAgra pays the highest dividend amongst its peers at a 3.3% yield. The food company could well trade in range of other Campbell competitors, as ConAgra has a better growth rate and debt ratio of 25% and trades with a similar P/E. The P/S of ConAgra is the lowest of its other peers at 0.9x compared to Campbell (1.6x), Hershey (2.6x) and Hain (1.7x). Putting a 1.6x P/S on this year’s sales estimates suggests ConAgra should trade upwards of 90% from it current share price, though a reasonable upside in the near term would be something around a third of this estimate. For more coverage, continue reading below:

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