Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Receives C$47.18 Average Price Target from Analysts

Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$47.18.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Ventum Capital boosted their target price on shares of Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Ventum Financial set a C$49.00 price target on shares of Saputo and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. TD Securities raised shares of Saputo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Saputo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, TD upped 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Saputo news, Director Steven Michael Douglas purchased 3,875 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$41.01 per share, with a total value of C$158,913.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,792 shares in the company, valued at C$688,639.92. This represents a 30.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. Also, Director Maxime Therrien sold 19,601 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 64,213 shares in the company, valued at C$2,700,798.78. This represents a 23.39% decrease in their position. Insiders have sold a total of 108,195 shares of company stock valued at $4,534,711 over the last 90 days. 40.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Saputo Price Performance

SAP stock opened at C$39.39 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 41.86. The business has a 50 day moving average price of C$40.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$41.45. The company has a market cap of C$15.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.77, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.21. Saputo has a twelve month low of C$32.49 and a twelve month high of C$45.09.

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

Saputo Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This is an increase from Saputo’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. 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.