I'll use this thread to open a discussion on Sysco, since some of you guys may be interesting to open a position.
Sysco is a large scale food distributor.
https://www.google.com/finance?q=sysco&e...G--bsgfXCg
They're very well known in the restaurant world. They are the largest food distributor in the United States.
Over the past 10 years I've seen them swallow all of their competitors. Around 2006 they bought Superior Foods (Previously owned by Pocahantas. In 2011 they bought Goldberg and Sullovy. ANd now U.S. Foods. In doing so, they have amassed new debt, experienced integration problems, assumed worse margins, and increased their debt/equity percentage. There's a fair analysis here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1913581-...y-position
If it weren't for their debt/equity percentage, they would pass my standards across the boards in terms of price, p/e ratio, market cap, and dividend yield.
However, all that said, I can say with utmost certainty that with the new acquisition of U.S. Foods, Sysco now holds a monopoly on food distribution. U.S. Foods was the last man standing in the firing line of Sysco, and now they're done.
Several things may happen, and you may very well see Sysco stock drop, but it should be on your radar as a future investment. Nearly every restaurant in the entire country will now have an account with Sysco and I believe over the next 3 years you'll see Sysco do quite well. The only caveat is their profits depend on timely payments from restaurants. When restaurants don't pay up Sysco's balance sheet takes a massive hit. Sysco issues a 30-day credit to accounts and when those accounts don't pay up, numbers start to look bad. But if Sysco can manage its accounts more aggressively and taper its credit terms, you'll see those profits skyrocket.
I have no personal ties to them except for the fact that I was a former customer of U.S. Foods, so now I'll be buying from Sysco I guess. This isn't meant to be an endorsement, just a little insider information for any interested parties.