Maple Leaf: a top buy for value

Article Excerpt

Maple Leaf Foods and its subsidiary, Canada Bread, are in the middle of multi-year restructuring plan. A big part of this restructuring involves closing smaller plants and moving their operations into larger facilities with better machinery. The plan’s cost has held back Maple Leaf’s earnings and share price. However, these moves will cut its costs, and help it better deal with rising prices for raw materials, such as pork, wheat and corn, as well as the higher Canadian dollar, which has hurt exports. In addition, the resulting productivity improvements will help it compete with large multinational food producers. We like both companies, but Maple Leaf offers better value. At its current price, its stake in Canada Bread is worth roughly $7.20 per Maple Leaf share. That means you get Maple Leaf’s meat-processing operations, which account for nearly two-thirds of its revenue, for just $3.80 a share. MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $11 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 144.4 million;…