Supervalu (SVU) Remains Out of Favor

Shares of Supervalu (NYSE:SVU), even though they have moved up a little over the last several days, have been under pressure for some time, now trading at less than half their 52-week high of $17.47.

There are some who are starting to look at Supervalu as a potential turnaround play, and that could be mostly on the share price rather than anything that has changed.

For example, the major negatives on SuperValu are its huge debt load and pressures on margins from higher costs. Consequently, margins and earnings are under pressure, as they are at other grocers.

One major problem for SuperValu is they simply don't have the scale of their competitors, as they're market cap is a relatively minuscule $1.84 billion as of Thursday's close.

Supervalu does offer a dividend for safety minded individuals who are looking for a fairly decent return on their money. The dividend at this time is 35 cents a share; a yield of 4.6 percent.

If you think the company will be able to hold and grow that dividend, it may be worth taking a closer look at.