World Grain - February 2016 - 50

FEATURE

Another year of advances

remarkable string of advances in share prices of North
American grain-based foods companies continued unabated in 2015. While modest compared with the averages of recent years, the Grain-Based Foods Share Index,
calculated by Milling & Baking News, sister publication of
World Grain, ended the year at a record 21225.54, up 4.3%.
It was the seventh straight year in which the GBF index
posted a gain, though it was the smallest advance during this
stretch that began in 2009. The 4% advance compared with
gains of 17% in 2014, 23% in 2013, 16% in 2012, 8% in 2011,
9% in 2010 and 13% in 2009.
The GBF index advance stood in contrast with a 2.2% decline in the Dow Jones average of industrial shares and a 0.7%
decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The Nasdaq composite index was up 5.7%.
In addition to eclipsing the S&P 500 overall, the GBF
index gain of 4.3% topped the 3.7% advance of the consumer staples sector within the S&P 500. The grain-based
index outgained all but two of the S&P sectors - consumer
discretionary, which was up 8.4% and health care, up 5.2%.
Most of the S&P sectors, like the GBF index, posted single-digit gains or declines during the year. The only wide
swings were energy, down 23.6% in 2015, and materials,
down 10.4%. Six of the 10 S&P sectors lost ground over the
course of last year.
Beneath the relatively modest overall change of the GBF
Index in 2015 was considerable volatility among the individual
stocks comprising the index. Of the 25 companies in the index
throughout the year, only six posted annual percentage changes in the single digits (down from nine companies in 2014).
Sixteen of the 25 companies scored gains during the year while
eight sustained declines and one was essentially unchanged.
One company in the index declared a stock dividend during
the year - shares of Starbucks Corp., Seattle, Washington,
U.S., split two-for-one in April.
Photo courtesy of AdobeStock.
50

by L. Joshua Sosland

Shares for North American grainbased foods companies score gains
for stunning seventh straight year
An addition to the GBF Index took place at mid-year with
the listing of the Kraft Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
U.S. Trading in Kraft Heinz opened July 6 at $71 per share.
The company's shares hit their 2015 peak that month at $81.20
and ended the year at $72.76.
MGP MAKES BIGGEST GAIN
MGP Ingredients, Inc., Atchison, Kansas, U.S., led the GBF
Index with the widest gain in 2015, 64%, marking the second
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heels of a 206% jump in 2014. Shares of MGPI surged nearly
20% in December alone, and the closing price for the year of
$25.95 per share represented the highest closing price for the
company since 2006, when the company's share price surged
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Ingredients has been among the, if not the very most, volatile
stocks in the GBF Index. A little more than three years after
hitting the 2006 peak, the company's shares hit a low of 50
cents. The December 2015 close represented a 5,000% recovery from the 2009 trough.
The stock price gain for MGP Ingredients during 2015 more
than eclipsed the company's earnings gains - net income was
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30) and sales were up 3.8%.
Shares of Mondelez International Inc., after rising a weak
1.6% in 2014, jumped 23% in 2015. The company's stock
price improved in connection with major moves aimed at
February 2016 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - February 2016

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