Activist pressure should lift Primo

Article Excerpt

PRIMO WATER CORP. $15 is a buy. The company (New York symbol PRMW; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 159.9 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; Dividend yield: 2.1%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.primowatercorp.com) provides multi-gallon jugs of purified water, water dispensers, and refilling stations across Canada and the U.S. In March 2020, Cott Corporation acquired the company and changed its name to Primo Water. Activist investor Legion Partners Asset Management, which owns 1.5% of Primo’s shares, wants the company to expand its customer base and earnings with several initiatives. Those include selling less-important operations and cutting capital spending. Legion feels these moves will lift Primo’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from $420 million in 2022 to over $630 million in 2027. The company will probably earn $0.74 a share in 2023, and the stock trades at 20.3 times that estimate. The company just raised the quarterly dividend by 14.3%; the new annual rate of $0.32 yields 2.1%. Primo Water is a buy. buy…