Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Wall Street Analysts

Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is C$47.18.

SAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Securities upgraded shares of Saputo to a “strong-buy” rating in a 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 company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Ventum Financial set a C$49.00 price target on Saputo and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Saputo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, National Bank Financial raised their price objective on Saputo from C$44.00 to C$45.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th.

Saputo Stock Performance

Shares of Saputo stock opened at C$39.02 on Friday. Saputo has a 12 month low of C$33.01 and a 12 month high of C$45.09. The firm has a market capitalization of C$15.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 41.86. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$40.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$41.03.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.49 earnings per share for the quarter. Saputo had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 7.45%. The firm had revenue of C$4.42 billion for the quarter. On average, equities analysts forecast that Saputo will post 1.7735369 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Saputo Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 25th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. This is a boost from Saputo’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Saputo’s dividend payout ratio is 64.52%.

Saputo Company Profile

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.