Topic: Growth Stocks

AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $36.50 – Toronto symbol AGT

AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $36.50 (Toronto symbol AGT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (604-231-1100; www.agtfoods.com; Shares outstanding: 23.8 million; Market cap: $862.3 million; Dividend yield: 1.6%) 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.

In the three months ended September 30, 2015, AGT earned $0.51 a share, up 10.9% from $0.46 a year earlier. Revenue gained 26.1%, to $362.8 million from $287.7 million. The increases came from recent acquisitions, including short-line railways and bulk loading facilities in Saskatchewan, and higher processing activity.

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 humus made from chickpeas. Pulses are also free of gluten and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The stock trades at just 15.5 times the $2.36 a share AGT is expected to earn in 2016. It yields 1.6%.

AGT Food & Ingredients is a top pick for 2016.

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