Saputo (TSE:SAP) Hits New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as C$42.64 and last traded at C$42.58, with a volume of 848273 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$41.59.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on SAP. TD Securities raised their price objective on Saputo from C$44.00 to C$49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price target on shares of Saputo from C$40.00 to C$44.00 in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Desjardins upped their price objective on shares of Saputo from C$40.00 to C$45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Saputo from C$38.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Saputo from C$42.00 to C$47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$43.50.

Saputo Stock Up 0.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 51.68, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 1.53. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is C$40.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$36.19. The stock has a market capitalization of C$17.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -213.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.04.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported C$0.57 EPS for the quarter. Saputo had a negative net margin of 0.84% and a negative return on equity of 2.20%. The company had revenue of C$4.89 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that Saputo Inc. will post 1.7735369 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Saputo Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Saputo’s payout ratio is presently -385.00%.

About Saputo

Saputo is a global dairy processor domiciled in Canada (28% of fiscal 2022 sales) with operations in the United States (43%), the U.K. (6%), and other international markets (23%). It sells cheese, cream, fluid milk, and other dairy products. In the retail segment (50% of revenue), its mix of brands include Saputo, Armstrong, Cheer, Cathedral City, and Frylight. Saputo also competes in food service (30% of revenue) and industrials (20% of revenue), which houses its ingredients business.