A tasty turnaround play

The fallout of McCormick’s failed takeover of Premier Foods (LSE: PFD) sent shares of the latter shuttling lower towards the end of last week, forcing the catering play to swallow a 29% decline between last Monday and Friday.

But I believe those fire-selling Premier Foods could be missing a trick here. Group sales may have edged just 0.1% higher between October and December, but the Mr Kipling and Oxo manufacturer outperformed the broader food sector, where sales keep falling. Indeed, Premier Foods’ decision to increase marketing spend on its key brands seems to be paying off handsomely.

The City expects earnings to drive 4% and 6% higher in the years to March 2017 and 2018 respectively, resulting in ultra-low P/E multiples of 4.9 times and 4.6 times. I reckon these figures make Premier Foods a steal given the sturdy progress of its turnaround strategy.

And of course Premier Foods could see its shares shoot higher again should McCormick — or indeed another potential suitor — return with a fresh buyout approach.

Builder bumps lower

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW) was forced to nurse a 7% stock price decline during Monday-Friday as fears over the health of the housing market intensified.

Britain’s chronic homes shortage continues to blast house prices relentlessly higher — indeed, latest data released from Rightmove showed average property values hit a fresh record of £307,033 in April. However, concerns abound that this breakneck price growth is about to hit the buffers, as new levies on the buy-to-let sector pull back on a key demand lever.

Still, I believe there is plenty of fuel to keep home prices moving higher. Improving buyer affordability and supportive lending conditions continue to underpin strong first-time buyer demand, while the UK’s failure to build at the required rate is not likely to be remedied any time soon.

Against this backcloth the City expects Taylor Wimpey to enjoy earnings growth of 18% in 2016 and 8% next year, resulting in excellent P/E ratings of 10 times and 9.3 times correspondingly. And vast dividend yields of 6.4% for this year and 6.8% for 2017 underpin Taylor Wimpey as a wise ‘bargain buy’, in my opinion.

Shop around

I am not so optimistic over the future of Morrisons (LSE: MRW), however. The supermarket’s share price dipped 3% last week, and I expect further losses to materialise as the trading environment gradually worsens.

Latest numbers from Kantar Worldpanel  showed sales at the Bradford business slump a further 2.4% in the three months to 27 March. And while the figure was exacerbated by store closures during the past year, Morrisons has still to show it has the mettle to get grocery sales marching higher again.

The company remains locked into a strategy of severe price slashing to rectify its tumbling market share. But these long-standing measures have failed to dent the soaring popularity of the budget chains — indeed, Aldi and Lidl topped YouGov’s annual index of Britain’s most popular brands for the second consecutive year in 2015.

Instead, this race to the bottom is instead simply putting Morrisons’ margins under sustained pressure. And while the City expects the chain to punch earnings growth of 44% and 10% in the years to January 2017 and 2018 respectively, I am not so cheery. And I believe P/E ratings of 19 times for this year and 17.1 times fail to reflect the high risk profile of Morrisons.

The post Should You Buy Last Week’s Losers Premier Foods Plc, WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC & Taylor Wimpey plc? appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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Royston Wild has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.