What's going on?

Campbell Soup was just right on Wednesday: the American company reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and its stock price heated up 9%.

What does this mean?

Last year, Campbell Soup announced a restructuring plan to change the 150-year-old company�s recipe. Growth in its core soup business had become tepid as consumers shunned processed meals. Campbell�s instead turned to snacks, having brought the heat by buying Snyder�s-Lance � maker of Kettle Chips � for $5 billion.


With a new head chef in Campbell�s busy kitchen, its plan appears to be working: quarterly revenue from its snacks and biscuits business was 37% higher than the same time last year. And Campbell�s profit for the quarter was $84 million � a hearty increase from last year�s tinny loss of $393 million.

Why should I care?

For markets: Investors got their fill.

Investors seemed to like the taste of Campbell�s results and slurped up its shares. The company also raised its annual profit forecast � partly thanks to cost cutting, having already slashed over $600 million of expenses since last August. And, as investors appeared to ease off last week�s trade war inspired stock selling, they also snapped up shares of Silicon Valley software darling Salesforce � which, late on Tuesday, reported better-than-expected quarterly results of its own.

The bigger picture: There�s always room for snacks.

As consumers become more health conscious, companies giving them what they want are killing it (figuratively of course ?). Beyond Meat�s stock, for example, has risen nearly 300% since going public last month. But it seems there�s still healthy demand for snacks like those sold by Campbell�s and PepsiCo � purveyor of Doritos and Cheetos. People might want their soup fresh, but they want to have their chips and eat them too � being healthy doesn�t have to be all or nothing.