CAG at a Generational Floor: Stepping in with Size Alongside the Board at 2009 Crisis Levels
Went full three-pronged long on CAG today. Bought the common at the LOD… $14 ish, rolled my short puts down to the Jun $13 strike w/a $12.60 breakeven, and I’m holding Jan 2028 LEAPS (purchased on 4/14 – 4/15) at the $17 and $22 strikes. Acted this AM to reposition the puts… shortened the DTE, lowered the strike for more cushion, and got it done at essentially flat cost basis versus the prior position. FWIW… this is not a toe-in-the-water entry. I’m sized for conviction.
Insider Buys:
ICYMI, after the close today, two directors — Richard H. Lenny and John J. Mulligan — filed Form 4s showing a combined ~$609K in open-market purchases at ~$14.31–$14.34 per share on 4/14. That’s not options exercises. That’s not a compensation plan. That’s two board members reaching into their own pockets at a historic low and buying stock the day before the filing. You don’t write those checks unless you believe in what’s coming.
The setup:
– Monthly chart has the stock sitting at the midline of a buy zone bounded by $11.55 and $16.24… we’re at $14.09, essentially the center of the range I care about
– The bottom of that shelf is the 2009 financial crisis low. The only other times this stock has traded at that level were 2000 and 1995. There is no financial crisis happening right now. The S&P is trading near all-time highs. This level of dislocation in a consumer staple is extreme and ridiculous, IMO
– Price is sitting roughly 50% below the 200-month SMA at $28.40 … detachment from the long-term mean that borders on absurd for a company that still generates $10B+ in revs and pays a yield this size
– Monthly volume is printing another massive capitulation bar — forced selling, index rebalancing, and the last of the yield chasers capitulating
– 52-week low printed today at $14.04
The thesis:
This is the same playbook I laid out on $CPB. The packaged-foods complex is being treated like it’s structurally impaired. It isn’t. Management just transitioned — new leadership at the helm w/a mandate to refocus — insiders are buying at the lows w/meaningful personal capital, and the stock is priced like the business is in terminal decline at a time when it’s still generating billions in top-line revenue. The multiple is compressed to levels that don’t reflect the underlying cash flows, and the dividend yield at these prices is screaming that the market has already priced in a potential cut. Fine. Even if the dividend gets rebased, I think the stock rallies on the news — same logic as I outlined with Campbell’s. The overhang clears, the shorts cover, and the remaining holders are there for the business.
Speaking of shorts:
This is where the asymmetry gets interesting. The entire packaged-foods space is being shorted with impunity right now. Complacent, crowded, consensus. One M&A rumor — one deal announcement, one PE take-private bid, one cross-border consolidation headline — and the sector rips. It won’t take much. When the entire category is trading at or near multi-decade lows with short interest elevated and every fund manager underweight, the move higher is going to be violent and it’s going to catch the wrong people offside. Consolidation in this space isn’t a question of if, it’s a question of when.
Bear case I’m respecting:
If comps deteriorate further and management has to guide down, the lower end of my buy zone — that $11.55 crisis-era floor — is in play, and my $13 puts get tested for real. Debt load from the Pinnacle Foods acquisition is still a real balance sheet headwind. Private label competition isn’t going away. And timing is always the risk with a contrarian thesis — the tape can stay irrational longer than the thesis takes to play out. If the shelf breaks, I’ll reassess size, but right now I’m positioned where I want to be: common for the core exposure, puts for the premium and potential assignment at $12.60, and LEAPS for the asymmetric upside when mean reversion kicks in.
My Plan:
If the tape pushes into the lower half of my buy zone, I accelerate… more common, more puts at lower strikes, potentially more LEAPS. Insiders are telling you something. The chart is telling you something. The shorts are going to find out.
As always, just my take and humble opinion only… so please do your own due diligence before making any decisions. NFA. Giddy up!