Associated British Foods’ (ABF) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) in a report issued on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a GBX 2,300 ($28.56) price objective on the stock.

Separately, Shore Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Associated British Foods in a report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Associated British Foods Price Performance

Shares of ABF opened at GBX 1,930 ($23.97) on Tuesday. Associated British Foods has a 12 month low of GBX 1,862 ($23.12) and a 12 month high of GBX 2,770.66 ($34.41). The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.71, a current ratio of 1.79 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 2,071.75 and a 200 day moving average price of GBX 2,267.76. The company has a market cap of £14.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 1,245.16, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.24.

Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported GBX 196.90 ($2.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Associated British Foods had a net margin of 5.92% and a return on equity of 10.69%. On average, research analysts forecast that Associated British Foods will post 188.0990415 earnings per share for the current year.

Associated British Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 12th were issued a GBX 69.30 ($0.86) dividend. This is an increase from Associated British Foods’s previous dividend of $20.70. This represents a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 12th. Associated British Foods’s payout ratio is presently 3,483.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Associated British Foods news, insider George G. Weston sold 56,653 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 2,161 ($26.84), for a total value of £1,224,271.33 ($1,520,456.20). Also, insider Loraine Woodhouse purchased 4,164 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 2,389 ($29.67) per share, for a total transaction of £99,477.96 ($123,544.41). 58.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Associated British Foods

Associated British Foods is a diversified international food, ingredients and retail group with sales of £13.9bn, 128,000 employees and operations in 53 countries across Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

Our purpose is to provide safe, nutritious, affordable food, and clothing that is great value for money.