Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) Receives C$47.18 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Saputo Inc. (TSE:SAP) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$47.18.

SAP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. National Bank Financial increased their price target on Saputo from C$44.00 to C$45.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Saputo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Ventum Capital upped their price objective on Saputo from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. TD increased their target price on Saputo from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Ventum Financial set a C$49.00 target price on Saputo and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th.

Saputo Stock Down 0.7%

SAP opened at C$39.79 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$15.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.09, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.21. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$40.97 and a 200-day moving average price of C$41.50. Saputo has a twelve month low of C$32.49 and a twelve month high of C$45.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 41.86.

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

Saputo Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Saputo’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Saputo

In other Saputo news, Director Maxime Therrien sold 19,601 shares of the 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 transaction, the director directly owned 64,213 shares in the company, 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 12,926 shares of Saputo stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$41.99, for a total transaction of C$542,762.74. Following the transaction, the insider owned 31,362 shares in the company, valued at C$1,316,890.38. This represents a 29.19% decrease in their position. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 155,766 shares of company stock valued at $6,525,571. 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.