Peter Drucker Goes Bananas

ByMichael Nau:Dole (DOLE) is an international fruit and vegetable company and is familiar to most consumers. The fruit and vegetable business is a tough one because it is largely a no-moat commodity industry and is subject to the fickle whims of both consumers and mother nature. Because of these issues, companies like Dole often lack both control over supply and pricing power, making profits unpredictable and erratic.

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ByJohn Connors:With any equity, there are generally five large groups of stakeholders - insiders, institutions, option traders, short sellers, analysts and individual investors. While it is hard to track trends among individual investors, we can track the moves and sentiment of the other five stakeholders. Using this as a framework, let's take a look at a household name - Fresh Del Monte (FDP)

By Jason Rivera:Dole is the largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables in the world. Based in California, Dole has operations in 90 countries around the world and has recently been expanding into the high margin packaged fruit business with products such as their Dole Shakers and Dole Fruit Crisps. They also own or lease 117,000 acres of land which could be used, at least partially, to pay down some of their massive debt and liabilities if sold, which we will get to later.

Dole sold its worldwide packaged-goods units and its Asia fresh-produce business this year to focus on its fresh produce elsewhere in the world.Dole Food Co.