Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSE:MFI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSE:MFI) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$35.93.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MFI shares. CIBC lowered their price objective on shares of Maple Leaf Foods from C$36.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Maple Leaf Foods from C$35.00 to C$33.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Maple Leaf Foods from C$43.00 to C$42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Maple Leaf Foods from C$35.00 to C$32.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a C$33.00 price objective on shares of Maple Leaf Foods and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 27th.

Maple Leaf Foods Stock Performance

Shares of MFI stock opened at C$25.55 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$25.20 and its 200 day moving average price is C$29.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 130.19. The stock has a market capitalization of C$3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 15.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 18.07 and a beta of 0.50. Maple Leaf Foods has a 52-week low of C$20.47 and a 52-week high of C$36.35.

Maple Leaf Foods (TSE:MFI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.49 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$1.01 billion for the quarter. Maple Leaf Foods had a return on equity of 2.19% and a net margin of 0.70%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Maple Leaf Foods will post 1.4334187 EPS for the current year.

Maple Leaf Foods Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 10th. Maple Leaf Foods’s dividend payout ratio is 58.02%.

About Maple Leaf Foods

Maple Leaf Foods Inc is a consumer-packaged meats company. It produces prepared meats and meals, fresh pork, and poultry and turkey products. The company also has agribusiness operations. These operations supply livestock to the meat products business operations. Its main markets are Canada, the United States, Japan, and China. The key brands are Maple Leaf and Schneiders, Maple Leaf Prime Naturally, Shopsy, Mitchell’s Gourmet Food, Larse, Parm, and Hygrade.