Food exchange traded funds were flat Thursday along with HJ Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) shares as the company reported quarterly results and met with analysts and investors.
Heinz reported lower-then-expected profit and said it plans to shutter some factories and cut up to 1,000 jobs.
Global X Food ETF (NYSEArca: EATX) and PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (NYSEArca: PBJ) were both little changed Thursday.
“With food stocks underperforming for the last two years since the market bottomed in March 2009, the group has been appropriately under-owned. Yet despite concerns about inflation and demand elasticity, food stocks have rallied,” Deutsche Bank said in a recent note.
“Investors and management are well aware of economic pressure on U.S. and European consumers, and the challenge to raise prices in the face of 7-8% inflation,” the analysts wrote. “Yet food stocks have outperformed in recent weeks in part due to better than expected sales growth from reporting companies.”
Heinz accounts for nearly 5% of the two food ETFs.
PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage
