001110 Smithfield Seen Having Upside Potential

New York, NY - Smithfield Foods Inc., could see its stock price rise further as it benefits from higher profits and a potentially lucrative deal with Wal- Mart Stores Inc., according to BusinessWeek's Inside Wall Street column.

A spokesman for Smithfield, the largest U.S. hog and pork producer, was not immediately available for comment.

The column quoted money manager Dennison Veru of Palisades Capital saying the stock “has a lot of upside potential based on its industry leadership and solid earnings growth.”

The column reported the stock is one of the few that has bucked the market's downswing, rising from $20 in early May to more than $29 on Nov. 1.

Smithfield's chief executive, Joseph Luter, was quoted forecasting that a recent contract with Wal-Mart could help triple the company's sales of fresh- wrapped pork to 75 million U.S. pounds in the year ended April 30, 2001, up from 23 million pounds in 2000. Smithfield sells 2.8 billion pounds of fresh pork a year, mostly in bulk form to grocers who do their own cutting, the column said.

Palisades Veru sees the meat producer's stock hitting $40 in 12 months and sees profits at $3 a share in fiscal 2001, up from $1.52 a share this year. In 2002, he sees earnings of $3.80 a share.

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