10:25 AM EDT, 04/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lift our 12-month target by $4 to $34, 12.1x our FY 25 (May) EPS of $2.81 (up from $2.69; FY 24 up to $2.63 from $2.61) vs. the 14x five-year mean. FQ3 (Feb-Q) adj-EPS of $0.69 (-9% Y/Y) beat by $0.04. The EPS beat was driven by gross margin upside (28.7% vs. 27.2% consensus), yet there was a 40-bp (about $0.02/share) one-time insurance benefit. Organic sales fell 2.0%, a sequential improvement from last quarter (-3.4%), driven by improving volumes in Grocery & Snacks (-0.8% volumes vs. -3.7% last quarter). Refrigerated & Frozen saw negative volumes and price/mix for the second consecutive quarter (-3.3% volumes; -4.8% price/mix), although CAG notes improving volume trends QTD in FQ4. Leverage fell to 3.4x vs. 3.6x in FQ2, as CAG prioritized debt paydowns, with its $1.2B in YTD FCF this fiscal year vs. just $0.4B YTD last fiscal year. Lower interest expense should drive EPS growth in FY 25, along with low-single-digit organic sales growth and modest operating margin expansion. Dividend yield is about 4.6%.