Analysts Set Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Target Price at C$47.18

Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is C$47.18.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SAP shares. TD Securities raised Saputo to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Ventum Financial set a C$49.00 price objective on Saputo and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. National Bank Financial increased their target price on Saputo from C$44.00 to C$45.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Ventum Capital increased their target price on Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Saputo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th.

Saputo Stock Performance

Shares of TSE SAP opened at C$42.68 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of C$17.09 billion, a PE ratio of 34.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.15. Saputo has a 1 year low of C$32.49 and a 1 year high of C$45.09. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of C$41.30 and a 200-day moving average price of C$41.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 41.86, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.01 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$4.42 billion for the quarter. Saputo had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 7.45%. Equities analysts anticipate that Saputo will post 1.7735369 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Saputo Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 25th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 16th. Saputo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.52%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Maxime Therrien sold 19,601 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$42.06, for a total value of C$824,418.06. Following the transaction, the director owned 64,213 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$2,700,798.78. The trade was a 23.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Martin Gagnon sold 12,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$41.99, for a total transaction of C$542,762.74. Following the transaction, the insider owned 31,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$1,316,890.38. This represents a 29.19% decrease in their position. Insiders have sold a total of 155,766 shares of company stock worth $6,525,571 over the last quarter. 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.