Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$46.73.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on SAP shares. Ventum Financial set a C$47.00 target price on shares of Saputo and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. TD Securities upgraded shares of Saputo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Ventum Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. National Bank Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Saputo from C$46.00 to C$44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, TD dropped their price objective on shares of Saputo from C$52.00 to C$51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 8th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Saputo news, Director Maxime Therrien sold 19,601 shares of Saputo stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 64,213 shares in the company, valued at C$2,700,798.78. The trade was a 23.39% decrease in their position. Also, insider Martin Gagnon sold 12,926 shares of Saputo stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$1,316,890.38. This trade represents a 29.19% decrease in their position. Insiders sold 155,766 shares of company stock worth $6,525,571 in the last quarter. 40.45% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Saputo Stock Performance

TSE SAP opened at C$42.44 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$40.99 and a 200-day moving average of C$41.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 48.08, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 1.71. The stock has a market cap of C$17.00 billion, a PE ratio of 26.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.06. Saputo has a 52-week low of C$26.96 and a 52-week high of C$45.09.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The company reported C$0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$3.31 billion during the quarter. Saputo had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 9.98%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Saputo will post 1.7735369 EPS for the current year.

Saputo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 25th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 16th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Saputo’s payout ratio is 48.47%.

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.