Maple Leaf: two strong companies in one

Article Excerpt

Maple Leaf Foods and its Canada Bread subsidiary are starting to benefit from their recent restructuring plans. We like both stocks, but Maple Leaf offers better value. At its current price, its stake in Canada Bread is worth roughly $7.45 per Maple Leaf share. That means you get Maple Leaf’s meat-processing operations, which account for nearly two-thirds of its sales, for just $3.55 a share. MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $11 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 139.5 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mapleleaf.ca) is Canada’s largest foodprocessing company. It mainly makes its products, which include fresh and prepared meats and poultry, under the Maple Leaf and Schneider brands. Through 90.0%-owned Canada Bread (see right), the company also makes fresh and frozen bread, pastries and pasta. Maple Leaf continues to restructure its operations, including simplifying its product lines and increasing its focus on its most profitable foods. The company is…