AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $28.09 (Toronto symbol AGT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (604-231-1100; www.alliancegrain.com; Shares outstanding: 23.1 million; Market cap: $656.1 million; Dividend yield: 2.1%) buys and processes a range of pulses—which include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas—as well as other specialty crops.

Saskatchewan-based AGT owns 13 processing plants in Canada, nine in Turkey, four in Australia, two in the U.S., one in China and one in South Africa.

AGT has grown quickly in the past five years, with revenue rising 111.8%, from $642.1 million in 2010 to $1.36 billion in 2014. Before one-time items, it made $1.76 a share in 2014, up sharply from $1.09 in 2013.

A big part of AGT’s success has come from its shift to more profitable products, such as ingredients and packaged foods, as opposed to simply cleaning, splitting, sorting and bagging bulk crops. Food makers use these processed ingredients in products such as baked goods, soups and beverages, as well as in pet food and animal feed.

Pulse-crop demand keeps rising for a number of reasons, including growing interest in healthier alternatives to meat and the popularity of ethnic foods, such as hummus made from chickpeas. Pulses are also free of gluten and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

To extend its reach, AGT has signed marketing and distribution deals with two of the world’s leading food companies, Cargill and Ingredion Inc., over the last two years.

The stock trades at just 13.6 times the $2.06 a share that AGT is expected to earn in 2015. It yields 2.1%.

AGT Food & Ingredients is a buy.