Sysco Corporation is engaged in the marketing and distribution of a wide range of food and related products to the foodservice industry. For the 13 weeks ended 9/30/00, sales increased 15% to $5.36B. Net income before accounting change increased 36% to $144M. Revenues reflect increased food prices and recent acquisitions. Earnings benefitted from increased margins and decreased interest expense.

November 9, 2000

Sysco Corporation is the largest food service distributor in North America, providing an inventory of 275,000 Products to over 325,000 customers. SYY has benefited from the recent shift away from high-multiple P/E tech stocks to more stable consumer product stocks. Shares of SYY hit a 52-week low of $26.13 on March 8, just one day before the NASDAQ peaked. Over the past eight months, SYY rebounded as the NASDAQ trended lower. On Thursday, the company's stock hit an all-time high at $54.69 while the NASDAQ retested its lows. Last week, SYY announced a 2-for-1 split, and we feel that the stock could continue to move higher into the payable date on December 15. From a technical perspective, SYY has support at the 10-dma of $52, with additional support at the November 3 intra-day low of $50.50. Resistance is the all-time high of $54.69 and then possibly $58. We are looking for entry points on a bounce off of $52 or a breakout above $54.69 on midday volume of at least 400,000 shares. As protection, we plan to set stops at $49.50, just under the 20-dma.

Picked on November 9th @ $53.94
Change since picked +0.00

December 17, 2000

Sysco Corporation was stuck in a tight trading range on Friday. Shares of SYY traded to an intra-day high of $55.25 before pulling back to close at $55 on heavy volume of 1.9 million shares. We exited SYY at the closing bell on Friday because the shares are due to split Monday.

Picked on November 9th @ $53.94
Profit/Loss = +0.86 (+2%)(Friday's Close)
Best Profit = +4.75 (+9%)