I was listening last night to Jim Cramer's "Lightning Round" and I was surprised to hear him discourage a caller who asked about Smucker (SJM).

I have to tell you that I have 'soft spot' for Smucker ever since years ago I remember visiting the Watsonville plant with my father and being amazed at the spectacular processing plant that made so many of the jams and jellies that I and my family regularly consumed.  Looking now for information on this factory, it does appear that it was closed back in 2003. 

I don't currently own any shares of Smucker (SJM) and the stock closed at $38.81 on April 9, 2009, up $.09 or 0.23% on the day. 

But I still was a bit upset when I heard Cramer say that a Smucker purchase was 'too conservative'.  So let's take a closer look at this stock and see if my own bias and love of those wonderful preserves is just affection or investing intelligence!

Smucker's has grown quite a bit since my own tour of the Smucker factory back in about 1962.  In 2008 Smucker added Folger's coffee to its stable of products from Procter and Gamble.   This followed the 2001 acquisition of Jif and Crisco from Procter and Gamble.  So there certainly is a lot more to Smucker than strawberry preserves!

Let's take a look at their latest quarterly results.  On February 25, 2009, Smucker (SJM) announced 3rd quarter results.   Indeed the report was a mixed set of results.  For the three months ended January 31, 2009, sales climbed 78% to $1.18 billion slightly under analysts' expectations of $1.22 billion.  Adjusted earnings (taking out 'one-time' items) came in at $77.9 million, up 84% from $42.4 million.  However, earnings per share declined 9% to $.68/share from $.75/share the prior year.  This decline was attributed to the $.20/share cost of integrating the Folgers coffee brand.  Adjusted profit was $.88/share, slightly head of the $.87/share expected by analysts according to Thomson Reuters.  Thus they disappointed in revenue and exceeded expectations on earnings.

However, they also  cut guidance for the full 2009 fiscal year to $3.6 billion to $3.7 billion down from prior expectations of $3.8 billion to $4 billion.  Analysts had been expecting sales of $3.84 billion.

As the article states:

"J.M.