Saputo (TSE:SAP) Raised to Strong-Buy at TD Securities

Saputo (TSE:SAP) was upgraded by investment analysts at TD Securities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Ventum Capital upped their price objective on Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Ventum Financial set a C$47.00 target price on Saputo and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. National Bank Financial dropped their price target on shares of Saputo from C$46.00 to C$44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, TD dropped their price target on shares of Saputo from C$52.00 to C$51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$46.73.

Saputo Trading Down 1.2%

Saputo stock opened at C$40.80 on Monday. Saputo has a 12-month low of C$26.50 and a 12-month high of C$45.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 48.08, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of C$16.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$40.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$41.55.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The company reported C$0.41 earnings per share for the quarter. Saputo had a return on equity of 9.98% and a net margin of 3.65%.The firm had revenue of C$3.31 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Saputo will post 1.7735369 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Saputo

In related news, Director Steven Michael Douglas sold 19,777 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$41.90, for a total value of C$828,656.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$541,222.30. This represents a 60.49% decrease in their position. Also, insider Leanne Cutts sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$41.73, for a total transaction of C$417,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 23,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$992,756.70. This represents a 29.59% decrease in their position. Insiders have sold a total of 121,453 shares of company stock valued at $5,082,072 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 40.45% of the company’s stock.

About Saputo

Saputo, one of the top ten dairy processors in the world, produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products of the utmost quality, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream products, cultured products, and dairy ingredients. Saputo is a leading cheese manufacturer and fluid milk and cream processor in Canada and a leading dairy processor in Australia. In the USA, Saputo ranks among the top three cheese producers and is one of the top producers of extended shelf-life and cultured dairy products.