Balance your risk with Consumer picks

Article Excerpt

Holding the shares of companies providing Consumer staples is a great way for investors to balance the risk of their more-cyclical resources and manufacturing holdings. That’s because sales of food and beverages tend to remain steady no matter what the economy is doing. We have a high opinion of the following: four leaders in the Canadian consumer staples segment. However, we currently recommend just one for your new buying. SAPUTO INC. $29 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol SAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 414.4 million; Market cap: $12.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.saputo.com) is Canada’s largest producer of dairy products, including milk, butter and cheese. It also operates dairies in the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and Argentina. As the company already controls about a third of Canada’s highly regulated cheese and milk markets, expansion in this country is difficult. As a result, it tends to use acquisitions in other countries to spur its growth. That’s…