Saputo gains on higher cheese prices

Article Excerpt

SAPUTO INC. $40 (Toronto symbol SAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 204.6 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.saputo.com) earned $0.54 a share in its third quarter, which ended December 31, 2010. That’s up 8.0% from $0.50 a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.0%, to $1.54 billion from $1.48 billion. The improved results were mainly due to higher cheese sales and prices in the U.S. As well, the company raised its selling price for milk in Argentina. However, a third of Saputo’s revenue comes from outside Canada. The Canadian dollar’s strength against the U.S. dollar and the Argentinian peso hurt the contribution of Saputo’s international sales. Saputo is a buy. buy…