Standard & Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'BBB' corporate credit and existing issue-level ratings on The J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM). The outlook is stable.

"The affirmation reflects Smucker's deleveraging during the first year following its $5.8 billion purchase of Big Heart Pet Brands," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Bea Chiem. "We estimate that the company will pay down about $900 million of debt by the end of fiscal 2016 ending in April, ahead of our prior expectation of the same amount by the end of fiscal 2017."

We have revised our assessment of the company's liquidity to strong from adequate, as sources of liquidity are expected to exceed uses by more than 1.5x over the next 12 months and 1.0x over the subsequent 12 months. We also forecast that net sources would be positive, even if EBITDA fell by 30%.

Smucker had roughly $5.3 billion in reported debt outstanding as of Jan. 31, 2016, and roughly $5.5 billion of net adjusted debt (reflecting net cash and adjustments for leases and pensions and postretirement benefit obligations).