Campbell Learns Health Food's No Picnic

It turns out trying to remake yourself into a "healthy" snack-food company is harder than it looks. Shares in Campbell Soup dropped 6 percent on Thursday after the company reported quarterly earnings that missed expectations and warned next year's results would disappoint, too.  It's well-known by now that sales of Campbell's salty soups have slowed. But what's unnerving is that its so-called "fresh business" -- its supposed saving grace -- is shaky, too. The results are a warning for a packaged-food industry struggling to meet growing consumer demand for healthier fare. As Big Food pays up to buy companies that promise outsize growth, some find the deals don't taste as good as they look. Or as Hedgeye analyst Howard Penney simply put it, "things are not good when your growth business can't grow and the rest of your business is soup."