ClaimsBill Ackman

“MDLZ is currently trading at approximately 15.5 times forward earnings, which is a trough valuation for the company since the spin-off of Kraft Foods in October 2012, and a 25% discount to its average valuation multiple since then.”

Bill Ackman, letter author 17 May 2018 Pershing Square 1Q18 Investor Letter (Pershing Square Holdings)

Factual Economics and markets

MDLZ trades at about 15.5 times forward earnings, a trough valuation since the October 2012 Kraft Foods spin-off and a 25% discount to its average multiple since then.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2018-05-17. The claim has three parts: MDLZ's forward P/E was about 15.5x (accept roughly 15 to 16x); this was the lowest forward multiple since the October 2012 spin-off; and it was a discount of about 25% (accept roughly 22 to 28%) to the average forward multiple since then. True: market data (consensus next-twelve-month EPS) confirm all three. Mostly true: all hold in substance, with a small slip such as the multiple being near the trough rather than exactly at it, or a discount of about 20 to 30%. Mixed: the multiple is right but only one of the other two parts holds. Mostly false: the multiple is materially off (for example below 14x or above 17x), or it was clearly not near a trough. False: none of the figures is close.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (3)

  1. E1 Time to Feast on Shares of Undervalued Mondelez - Morningstar Morningstar · 26 September 2018

    “think that investors should feast on shares, which trade at around a 15% discount to our $52 fair value estimate and the high-teens to low 20s price/earnings multiple of its wide-moat peers.”
  2. E2 Mondelez International (MDLZ) forward PE: 20.2× today | Superworth Superworth · 3 November 2026

    “Over that time it ranged from 16.5× in May 2018 to 26.5× in Sep 2024.”
  3. E3 Mondelēz International Reports 2017 Results | Mondelēz International, Inc. Mondelēz International, Inc. · 31 January 2018

    “The company also expects double-digit Adjusted EPS growth on a constant-currency basis.”

Reasoning

E2 says MDLZ's forward P/E hit a low of 16.5x in May 2018. That points to a trough around the claim date, but the figure is a little above the accepted 15–16x range. E2's quote also doesn't say when its data series starts, so it doesn't confirm a trough since the October 2012 spin-off. None of the evidence gives MDLZ's average forward multiple since 2012, so the claimed 25% discount can't be checked. E1 and E3 don't give MDLZ's forward multiple as of May 2018. With one partial, indirect source, the three-part claim isn't settled.

Cite this claim

Bill Ackman, “MDLZ trades at about 15.5 times forward earnings, a trough valuation since the October 2012 Kraft Foods spin-off and a 25% discount to its average multiple since then.” (said 17 May 2018). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_c16814de40dd, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_c16814de40dd

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

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