Conagra Brands, Inc.

What does Conagra Brands own?
Conagra Brands owns approximately 25 packaged food brands across frozen meals, frozen vegetables, shelf-stable grocery, meat snacks, and dairy. Its most recognized brands include Healthy Choice, Birds Eye, Slim Jim, Duncan Hines, Hunt's, Orville Redenbacher's, Marie Callender's, Banquet, Vlasic, and Reddi-Wip. The company acquired many of these brands through acquisitions, most notably the $10.9 billion Pinnacle Foods deal in 2018.

Is Conagra Brands publicly traded?
Yes, Conagra Brands trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker CAG. The company has been publicly traded for decades and has approximately 478 million shares outstanding. Major institutional shareholders include Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street. No single shareholder holds a controlling stake.

Who founded Conagra Brands?
Conagra was founded in 1919 as Nebraska Consolidated Mills in Grand Island, Nebraska by Frank Little, Lahman H. Baldridge, and Alva Kinney. The company was originally a flour milling operation. It was renamed ConAgra, Inc. in 1971 and later rebranded as Conagra Brands in 2018 following the Pinnacle Foods acquisition.

Where is Conagra Brands headquartered?
Conagra Brands is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The company's corporate offices house its executive team, marketing, finance, and administrative functions. Conagra moved its headquarters to Chicago from Omaha, Nebraska in 2016 as part of its transformation under then-CEO Sean Connolly.

How many brands does Conagra Brands own?
Conagra Brands owns approximately 25 brands across its four business segments. The exact count fluctuates as the company acquires and divests brands. Its largest brands by revenue are Birds Eye, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim, and Hunt's. The company does not publicly disclose individual brand revenue figures.

Who owns Conagra Brands?
Conagra Brands is a publicly traded corporation owned by its shareholders. Ownership is broadly distributed among institutional investors, mutual funds, and individual shareholders. No single shareholder or family holds a controlling stake. The company is governed by a board of directors elected by shareholders, with John Brase serving as president and CEO as of July 2026.

What is Conagra Brands' revenue?
Conagra Brands reported net sales of approximately $11.3 billion for fiscal year 2026 (ended May 31, 2026), a decrease of 2.9% from the prior year. The company generated adjusted EPS of $1.72 and free cash flow of $979 million. For FY2027, Conagra projects organic net sales to decline 1% to 3%.

Conagra traces its origins to 1919, when Nebraska Consolidated Mills was founded in Grand Island, Nebraska to process flour. The company grew by acquiring grain milling and processing operations across the Midwest throughout the early twentieth century. For its first fifty years, the business was primarily a commodity agricultural company.

The company renamed itself ConAgra, Inc. in 1971. The name combines "con" (from consolidated) and "agra" (from agriculture). Under CEO Mike Harper, who took over in 1975, ConAgra began a transformation from a grain processing business into a diversified food company. Harper had suffered a heart attack in 1989 and directed the company to develop a line of nutritionally improved frozen meals, which became Healthy Choice. The brand grew into one of the best-selling better-for-you frozen meal lines in the United States.

The 1980s and 1990s were a period of aggressive acquisitions. ConAgra acquired Banquet Foods in 1980, Armour Food Company in 1983, and Hunt-Wesson in 1990. Each deal expanded the company's branded consumer food portfolio. The company also built a large private label and ingredients business during this period, which generated significant revenue but operated at lower margins than branded products.

In the 2000s, ConAgra divested many of its commodity ingredients businesses to focus on branded consumer food. The company sold its trading and merchandising operations and its private label operations to Cott Corporation in 2015 for approximately $1.3 billion. This divestiture was a deliberate strategy to concentrate on higher-margin branded products.

The most significant transaction in Conagra's recent history was the acquisition of Pinnacle Foods in 2018 for approximately $10.9 billion. Pinnacle brought Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Vlasic, Gardein, and several other brands into the portfolio. The deal was financed with a combination of debt and equity, and it significantly increased Conagra's debt load. The company rebranded from ConAgra Foods to Conagra Brands in 2018 to signal its new identity as a brand-focused consumer packaged goods company.

The Pinnacle acquisition has had mixed results. Birds Eye and Duncan Hines have performed well, but the integration was costly and the company has struggled with debt reduction. As of May 31, 2026, Conagra had total debt of approximately $7.27 billion. The company reduced net debt by approximately $1 billion in FY2026 and targets a long-term leverage ratio of 3.0x, down from 3.83x at the end of FY2026.

In FY2026, Conagra reported a diluted loss per share of $4.00, driven primarily by non-cash goodwill and brand impairment charges. Adjusted EPS was $1.72. The company provided FY2027 guidance for organic net sales to decline 1% to 3%, adjusted operating margin between 10.0% and 10.5%, and adjusted EPS between $1.40 and $1.50.

Conagra publishes an annual sustainability report and has made commitments in several areas. The company participates in the Consumer Goods Forum's Food Waste Coalition and has set targets for reducing food waste across its operations. Conagra has committed to sourcing cage-free eggs for applicable products.

On packaging, Conagra has set goals to reduce packaging waste and increase recyclable content. The company has invested in lightweight packaging for its frozen food products and has worked with suppliers to develop more sustainable packaging materials. These are company-reported commitments and have not been independently verified through third-party certification.

Conagra is not a Certified B Corporation. None of its brands appear in the B Lab directory as independently certified. The company does not have Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) commitments for emissions reduction. Conagra is not an RSPO member, though some of its suppliers may source certified sustainable palm oil.

The company has not faced significant greenwashing allegations or regulatory action related to sustainability claims. However, its sustainability reporting is self-disclosed and should be evaluated as first-party information rather than independent verification.

Conagra faced a significant accounting issue in FY2026, reporting non-cash goodwill and brand impairment charges that resulted in a reported diluted loss per share of $4.00. The impairments reflected reduced valuations of certain brands within the portfolio, indicating that some acquisitions, particularly from the Pinnacle Foods deal, have not performed as well as originally projected.

The company has faced class action litigation related to product labeling. In 2020, Conagra settled a class action lawsuit alleging that its Wesson oil products were marketed as "natural" despite containing genetically modified ingredients. The company has also faced lawsuits related to the labeling of "100% natural" claims on various products, a common issue in the packaged food industry.

Conagra, along with other major food companies, has faced scrutiny over the use of phthalates and other chemicals in food packaging. A 2022 study by Consumer Reports found phthalates in several Conagra products, including Chef Boyardee and Del Monte items (Del Monte was subsequently divested). The company has stated that it complies with all FDA regulations regarding food packaging.

The company's high customer concentration with Walmart (approximately 29% of net sales) creates structural risk. Any disruption in this relationship, including changes in Walmart's shelf space allocation or private label expansion, could materially affect Conagra's financial performance.