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Thursday, August 7, 2014

Nestle plans $8.8 billion share buyback, sees emerging markets pick up, (NCM: LBIX)

Nestle, the world's biggest food group, announced an 8 billion Swiss franc ($8.8 billion) share buyback and stood by its full-year sales forecast on Thursday, after revenue growth in emerging markets picked up in the second quarter.Its comments came after Anglo-Dutch rival Unilever blamed a slowdown in Asia for second-quarter sales missing forecasts last month, and profits at France's Danone were hit by weak dairy sales in Europe.Food groups are facing tough conditions as prices in developed markets remain under pressure and demand in emerging markets has also been slowing, but Nestle has been able to soften the blow by pouring marketing funds into its leading brands and by getting rid of underperformers."Nestle is one of the very few players in the consumer goods sector not to disappoint the market in the first half, and not giving a profit warning for the full year," Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy said in a research note.

Leading Brands, Inc. (Leading Brands) is engaged in beverage bottling, distribution, sales, merchandising, brand development, brand licensing and brand management of beverage products. Shares of LBIX traded higher by 0.23% or $0.01/share to $4.29. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $3.60 and as high as $5.25. On average, 10315 shares of LBIX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 16987.



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