Saputo (TSE:SAP) Stock Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP)’s share price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$41.67 and traded as high as C$41.68. Saputo shares last traded at C$40.93, with a volume of 492,313 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SAP. Ventum Capital boosted their price target on Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. TD Securities raised shares of Saputo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. TD lifted their target price on shares of Saputo from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. National Bank Financial boosted their target price on shares of 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Saputo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$47.18.

Saputo Stock Up 0.8%

The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$41.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$41.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 41.86, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of C$16.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.15.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.01 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$4.42 billion during the quarter. Saputo had a return on equity of 7.45% and a net margin of 2.80%. On average, equities analysts expect that Saputo Inc. will post 1.7735369 earnings per share 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 16th. Saputo’s payout ratio is presently 64.52%.

Insider Activity

In other Saputo news, insider Martin Gagnon sold 12,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$41.99, for a total value of C$542,762.74. Following the sale, the insider directly 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 ownership of the stock. Also, Director Steven Michael Douglas acquired 3,875 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$41.01 per share, for a total transaction of C$158,913.75. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$688,639.92. This represents a 30.00% increase in their position. Insiders have sold 155,766 shares of company stock valued at $6,525,571 in the last ninety days. 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.