DA Davidson Upgrades Diamond Foods (DMND) to Buy, Price Target Offers 29% Upside

August 8, 2011 3:09 PM EDT Send to a Friend
Get Alerts DMND Hot Sheet
Price: $16.29 -2.16%

Rating Summary:
    0 Buy, 12 Hold, 0 Sell

Rating Trend: Up Up

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 11 | Down: 18 | New: 13
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DA Davidson is upgrading shares of Diamond Foods (NASDAQ: DMND) to a Buy rating from its previous rating of Hold as shares haven fallen 18 percent since July 5. The firm is maintaining its price target of $85.

The firm believes that DMND are positioned to grow substantially over the next 2 to 5 years with the key driver being the Pringles acquisition which is expected to close in December.

Management at Diamond Foods has been putting a lot of its efforts in assembling a solid Pringles operations team. The company has been looking in areas such as Cincinnati, Geneva, Switzerland, and Singapore. The firm notes that the average Pringles consumer in Europe is much younger and the demographic is more promising than in the U.S. segment.

An analyst at DA Davidson comments, "We continue to like the top line growth rates and the likelihood of much better EBIT margins. No other company in our research universe has so consistently reinvested for growth as DMND. This means the EBIT margins we now enjoy may have nearly as much upside as they have achieved over the past five years – no small thing since EBIT margins have improved from 2.8 percent in FY06."

For more ratings news on Diamond Foods click here and for the rating history of Diamond Foods click here.

Shares of Diamond Foods closed at $67.73 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $37.91-$79.37.


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