Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is C$46.73.

A number of brokerages have commented on SAP. Ventum Financial set a C$47.00 price target on shares of Saputo and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. TD Securities upgraded Saputo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. National Bank Financial dropped their target price on Saputo from C$46.00 to C$44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD dropped their target price on Saputo from C$52.00 to C$51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Ventum Capital raised their target price on Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th.

Saputo Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of SAP stock opened at C$42.59 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$41.47 and a 200-day moving average of C$41.69. The stock has a market cap of C$17.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.14. Saputo has a 52-week low of C$27.88 and a 52-week high of C$45.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 48.08, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 1.71.

Saputo (TSE:SAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The company reported C$0.41 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$3.31 billion for the quarter. Saputo had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 9.98%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Saputo will post 1.7735369 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Saputo Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 48.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Saputo news, Director Maxime Therrien sold 19,601 shares of Saputo stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$42.06, for a total transaction of C$824,418.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 64,213 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$2,700,798.78. This trade represents a 23.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Martin Gagnon sold 26,806 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$41.78, for a total transaction of C$1,119,954.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,362 shares in the company, valued at C$1,310,304.36. This represents a 46.08% decrease in their position. Insiders sold a total of 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.