| BUY | 10.560 | John O'Connell, CFA | Has bought and sold this a number of times. At this price, it pays you to own. Hurting because going through a restructuring and their holding of Canada bread was not able to pass on commodity costs. They are moving more and more to a higher margin products. | 2008-07-31 | |
| DON'T BUY | 11.050 | Colin Stewart | Well run company. In a difficult spot right now. As a food processor, a lot of the underlying costs have risen so dramatically that it has had a negative impact on the stock. Have some leverage on their balance sheet. Would prefer to play this through their subsidiary Canada Bread(CBY-T). | 2008-06-25 | |
| HOLD | 13.610 | David Burrows | Food is a safe haven sector that he would consider investing in. This stock is having some headwinds from a share price perspective. Would prefer others such as Canada bread (CBY-T) or Saputo (SAP-T). | 2008-01-18 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 14.030 | John O'Connell, CFA | (Top Pick Nov 27/06. Up 15%.) Still likes. Good defensive name. Struggling with the high Cdn$. Still going through a restructuring. If they get it right, it has $20 written all over it. | 2007-12-10 | |
| DON'T BUY | 16.020 | Gordon Higgins, CA, MBA, CFA | Restructuring. The money they are spending is to reposition themselves, but you are not going to see that until 2009. About one quarter of their sales are on bakery products and with wheat prices going up this might put pressure on them. | 2007-09-12 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 15.470 | John O'Connell, CFA | (A Top Pick Nov 27/06. Up 30.4%.) Was a good price at the time. Would still Buy it has some risks because of the stronger Cdn$ and the restructuring story is still unfolding. | 2007-08-27 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 15.290 | John O'Connell, CFA | (A Top Pick Aug 25/06. Up 30%.) Still likes the story. They have embarked on a substantial restructuring campaign, moving from less about pork processor to more of a finished meet product. Higher margins. | 2007-07-31 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 16.060 | John O'Connell, CFA | (A Top Pick Aug 25/06. Up 36%.) Had been undervalued. Great management team. Have made a major shift in strategy. Paying down debt. | 2007-05-29 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 14.260 | John O'Connell, CFA | (A Top Pick Aug 25/06. Up 20.4%.) Going through a major restructuring. Management owns a big piece of the company and is very focused. | 2007-03-30 | |
| WAIT | 13.600 | Norman Levine | In 2 businesses. Commodities where they produce mostly pork and consumer products. Trying to get out of the commodities and more into packaged goods that has less cyclicality and better margins. A “ show me” stock. | 2007-02-12 | |
| TOP PICK | 13.730 | John O'Connell, CFA | (A Top Pick Aug 25/06. Up 15.1%.) Going through a major restructuring by getting out of low margin pork processing and into high margin finished meat. | 2007-01-25 | |
| DON'T BUY | 13.500 | Brian Acker, CA | His model price is $14.32 which is only a 6% positive differential. You can find more value elsewhere. | 2007-01-17 | |
| DON'T BUY | 12.340 | Jeff Parent | The chart shows that the company is not doing too much. Consolidating quite a bit at this level. The chart shows three highs that where lower than the previous. | 2007-01-02 | |
| BUY | 12.010 | Michael Sprung | Has been in the doldrums for a period of time, but their recent earnings looked OK. Hasn’t hit his screens from a valuation point. Good underlying management. | 2006-12-08 | |
| DON'T BUY | 12.340 | Paul Harris, CFA | Strong Cdn$ is starting to hurt the company. Have been doing too many things and not concentrating on their core business. | 2006-11-30 | |
| TOP PICK | 11.800 | John O'Connell, CFA | (A Top Pick Aug 25/06. No change.) Deep value play. 2 major businesses, Canada Bread ($9.50 value) and meats. Restructuring and moving towards a more finished, high margin product. | 2006-11-27 | |
| SELL | 11.930 | David Baskin | The meat packing industry has always been a low margin business. Doesn't see a quick turnaround. Use it as a tax loss. | 2006-11-21 | |
| SELL | 11.400 | Robert Floyd | Have had a few problems lately with their overall operations. Margins have not been terrific. | 2006-11-13 | |
| DON'T BUY | 13.130 | John Zechner | They continue to look for value added products. Cost structure still seems to be a little bit out of control and has a lot of volatility. There are health issues with the meat related products. Not much here to get you excited. | 2006-10-16 | |
| BUY | 12.500 | John O'Connell, CFA | Reasonable value. A major shareholder of Canada Bread. Stock price dropped due to their meat processing business was going through a great deal of difficulty. | 2006-10-03 | |
| DON'T BUY | 11.890 | Veronika Hirsch | She has this as a short but at this time, she would be looking to buy back. Doesn't see it going below $10. They have missed numbers. A very tough business. | 2006-08-29 | |
| BUY | 12.140 | Chris Smith | Started looking at this stock because of a lot of consolidation among the major meat producer/packers. Not a bad company. Stock has sold off pretty hard. Could be a takeover candidate or consolidated. Not expensive. | 2006-08-28 | |
| TOP PICK | 11.840 | John O'Connell, CFA | At a 52 week low which represents very compelling value. Owns about 90% of Canada Bread (CBY-T). If you where to dividend out Canada Bread to the shareholders, it would represent about $10.50 which means you are really buying the food processing business for about $1. MLF has about $1 billion in debt but CB has no debt. | 2006-08-25 | |
| DON'T BUY | 11.390 | David Burrows | The problem with them is that there are a lot of moving pirates when it comes to the cost of their goods and the profitability that they generate. A very difficult business and the margins are very low. | 2006-08-23 | |
| SELL | 13.590 | David Burrows | This is a well managed company. There are a lot of sellers looking to sell. Avoid. Sell if you own. | 2006-02-27 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | 14.650 | Brian Acker, CA | His model price is $18.12, a 22% differential but the stock will probably end up at $17.75. $12.80 is probably the bottom and that is where he would buy. | 2005-12-21 | |
| DON'T BUY | 17.090 | David Burrows | This is not the right place to be in this kind of market. It's a company that will continue to grow, but you want to be in something that's participating in this rally. This is more of a defensive play and this is not a defensive market right now. | 2005-08-04 | |
| DON'T BUY | 17.000 | David Baskin | An interesting company because you would think they should be making money hand over fist, but looking at the stock for a long term it's hard to get rich with this stock. Doesn't trade a lot. Low margins. | 2005-07-11 | |
| HOLD | 16.950 | Ron Meisels | The 200 day moving average is beautifully positioned. It just needs a little bit of rise. Towards the end of the bull market, attention goes towards consumer oriented stocks. | 2005-07-07 | |
| BUY | 16.990 | David Baskin | A little concerned about liquidity for institutions. With the Schneiders acquisition that could change a little bit. Food is a very good sector to be in and there aren't that many ways to play it in Canada. | 2005-05-24 | |
| HOLD | 16.200 | David Burrows | Their purchase of Schneiders has really helped the business. Profitability has been really improving, but unfortunately a few of the analysts have reduced their estimates going forward. Watch for signs that they are going to consistantly grow. A defensive sector, so you won't be too badly hurt by it. | 2005-05-03 | |
| HOLD | 16.440 | Bill Carrigan | Had a perfect breakout in '03 and almost spiking now. Trend lines show a growth channel and it's near the top now. If you own, reduce on the next rally. | 2005-04-27 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 15.890 | Ron Meisels | (A Top Pick Nov 16/04. Up 7.5%.) Still has a very gorgeous movement above the 200 day moving average. The consumers staple group of stocks is where people are running to when they feel the market is too high. | 2005-02-01 | |
| DON'T BUY | 14.250 | Jonathen Wellum, B. Comm, B. Sc | A well run company, but there are a lot of commodity aspects to it, so difficult in terms of pricing. Cyclical. | 2004-11-26 | |
| VAGUE | 14.250 | Neil Wickham | Probably has some upside. Always looks expensive, but keeps going up. Good company. | 2004-11-23 | |
| TOP PICK | 14.650 | Ron Meisels | Towards the tail end of the market, consumer staples become attractive because investors feel that if they can't buy for growth they can go into staples. In a nice uptrend after breaking out of its base. | 2004-11-16 | |
| BUY | 13.360 | Norman Levine | Very highly correlated to the price of pork bellies. Meat products are very highly demanded now in the current diet phase. | 2004-10-21 | |
| TOP PICK | 13.350 | Ron Meisels | Stock made a very good base in 2003 between $10 and $11.50. Has broken out recently and is currently above its 200 day moving average. | 2004-10-20 | |
| BUY | 12.600 | Michael Smedley | Has done quite well on pork prices. | 2004-07-28 | |
| WEAK BUY | 12.300 | John Zechner | A well-run company and have done a good job of vertically integrating their products in the stores. A slow growth business and there are pricing pressures. | 2004-06-10 | |
| BUY | 12.250 | Norman Levine | Very commodity related. Seems to trade at the same level as pork which is hot at this point. Near-term, should be a good investment. | 2004-05-28 | |
| BUY | 11.850 | Norman Levine | Protein commodities have been very strong and this is a way of participating. | 2004-05-17 | |
| BUY | 11.930 | Rob Callander | The long-term outlook is quite strong. Very stable business. Well-managed. | 2004-05-10 | |
| WEAK BUY | 11.110 | Norman Levine | Would like to own, but havent got around to it. Hasn't come together for us. | 2004-02-11 | |
| VAGUE | 10.580 | Andrew McCreath | Has problems because of currency. Issues about meat. Market under preformer. | 2004-01-28 | |
| DON'T BUY | 10.510 | Andrew McCreath | Will have some challenges going forward because of the strong Canadian dollar. There are also issues on concerns of meat. Will be a market under performer. | 2004-01-26 | |
| SELL | 10.510 | Ross Healey | Selling at its fair market value. Doesn't know how the Schneiders merger is going to work out. Stock is sitting on some pretty strong technical support so it may hold here. | 2003-10-09 | |
| WEAK BUY | 9.940 | Bob Stodgell | No history of dividend growth. Should start to improve. | 2003-09-18 | |
| DON'T BUY | 10.640 | Richard Stone | Likes the consumer staple sector. Too thinly traded. Would rather own Canada Bread which they own a large chunk of. Low growth at 3%. | 2003-04-21 | |
| DON'T BUY | 10.300 | John Zechner | A defensive stock. Not much growth. | 2002-12-05 | |
| BUY | 10.910 | Gavin Graham | Good brand. Increasing sales. Defensive play. | 2002-09-30 | |
| BUY | 14.200 | Brian Acker, CA | Great company. Earnings keep going up. | 2002-07-25 | |
| BUY | 16.700 | John Embry | Good management. Aggressive balance sheet. | 2002-04-17 | |
| DON'T BUY | 11.250 | Martin Hubbes, CFA | Good earnings, but doesn't like for the long term. | 2001-07-11 | |
| HOLD | 10.800 | Robert Floyd | Low return. Long term hold. | 2001-07-09 | |
Experts that have talked about Maple Leaf Foods
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