Acquisition risk hurts Saputo’s appeal

Article Excerpt

SAPUTO INC. $32 (Toronto symbol SAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 390.7 million; Market cap: $12.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.saputo.com) earned $155.7 million in its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s up 16.8% from $133.3 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 14.7%, to $0.39 from $0.34, on more shares outstanding (all per-share amounts adjusted for a 2-for-1 stock split in September 2014). Sales rose 21.1%, to $2.7 billion from $2.3 billion. That’s mainly because of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, an Australian maker of milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products; Saputo bought 87.92% of Warrnambool for $449.6 million in January 2014. Higher selling prices for cheese and butter in the U.S. also contributed to the gain. There is little opportunity for Saputo to expand in Canada’s highly regulated dairy industry, so it will likely keep fueling its growth with overseas acquisitions. However, purchases like Warrnambool,…