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Freshpet produces and sells premium fresh pet food through its company-owned refrigerators placed in grocery, mass and club, pet specialty, and natural stores. Freshpet primarily targets dogs (96% of 2024 sales), with cats and treats comprising the rest of its sales. Geographically, the company’s home US market, where all its food is produced, accounts for about 98% of sales, with exports to Canada, the United Kingdom, and other European countries accounting for the remaining balance.

Walmart is the world's largest retailer. In the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, revenues were $681 billion (compared with Amazon's $637 billion in total revenue). The company has three segments: Walmart Stores, which accounted for about 69% of revenue; Sam's Club, a membership warehouse chain, which comprised 13% of revenue; and the International segment, which generated 18% of sales. The company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, ended fiscal 2025 with about 10,770 retail units in 19 countries. Groceries are the largest product category in the U.S. market, at approximately 60% of sales. Health and Wellness, another stable category, is 12%. General Merchandise is 26% of sales. Sam's Club gets approximately 65% of sales from Groceries and Consumable products. Global e-commerce sales were almost $108 billion in FY25. The fiscal year ends on January 31 for U.S. and Canadian operations. Other operations generally are consolidated using a one-month lag on a calendar-year basis.

The major stock indices are a mixed bag at midday -- but the common theme is 'flat, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average up by very little and the Nasdaq down by very little. The latest consumer sentiment reading from the University of Michigan showed sentiment hit its second-lowest reading on record, at 50.8. That compares to 52.2 last month and the consensus expectation of 53.4. The all-time low reading was 50 in June of 2022. There is also growing concern about inflation, with both short-term and long-term inflation expectations on the rise among American consumers.

Two important inflation reports -- the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index -- were released earlier this week and both signaled that pricing pressures are again easing. For now. Both reports indicated that overall pricing pressures remain well below the peak rates in the summer of 2022. But both also confirmed that inflation remains above the Fed's target of 2.0%, and that it may take a while to get to that level. Let's first take a deeper dive into the Consumer Price Index. The news here was good, as the annualized headline number ticked lower from the previous month (2.3% versus 2.4% and 3.0% three months ago). According to the latest CPI report, the core inflation rate (ex-food and energy) was steady at 2.8%. Once again, the most encouraging data was related to Transportation Services and Shelter costs. In these sticky categories, year-over-year inflation rates have declined meaningfully. Gas prices are also sharply lower year over year, which should please consumers. The other inflation report was the Producer Price Index. The PPI measures pricing trends farther up the supply chain, at the manufacturing level. Here, the news was also generally positive. For example, the PPI final demand annual rate through April was 2.4%, compared to 2.7% a month ago and 3.7% in January. Based on the fundamentals, we expect pricing pressures to continue easing as the housing market cools due to high mortgage rates, and the price of oil stays below $90 per barrel (current price is $61). But that low price of oil reflects a new wild card that has entered the forecasting picture: Trump's trade wars. His tariffs -- should they ever go into effect -- will almost certainly raise prices, sending the inflation rate higher again. That will put new pressure on the Federal Reserve, which we think -- again, based on the fundamentals -- should be in position to lower rates in the second half of the year.