Fresh Del Monte Produce looks to continue earnings streak
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (NYSE:FDP) is one of the world’s leading vertically integrated producers, marketers, and distributors of fruit and vegetables, as well as a producer and distributor of prepared food in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. This afternoon, FDP was last seen up 0.4% at $33.97.
FDP is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings and financial results next week on Tuesday, October 26. Wall Street analysts currently expect that Fresh Del Monte will deliver earnings of $0.35 per share in the upcoming Q3 earnings report.
Fresh Del Monte stock has increased about 35% year-over-year and is up around 68% since bottoming at a 52-week low of $20.71 last November. Additionally, shares of FDP have grown 33% year-to-date and has shed about 7.5% since hitting its annual high of $36.57 in mid-May. Fresh Del Monte Produce also offers a forward dividend of $0.60 and a dividend yield of 1.77%.
From a fundamental perspective, Fresh Del Monte stock has a decent valuation, with FDP trading at a price-earning ratio of 14.89. However, the security's fundamentals are relatively weak.
FDP's balance sheet doesn’t provide much security either, with the total cash balance at $19.6 million and the total debt at $666.4 million. Overall, even Fresh Del Monte stock’s valuation seems much less attractive when looking at FDP’s forward price-earnings of 17.92, which suggests an expected decrease in earnings.
Regardless, analysts are looking optimistic toward the security. In fact, heading into today, both of the covering brokerages sport a "buy" recommendation on Fresh Del Monte Stock.