Brenda O’Farrell
Investing.com – As Maple Leaf Foods continues to generate headlines across Canada in the wake of its CEO speaking out forcefully against actions taken by the U.S. administration in Iran that resulted in the downing of a passenger airliner killing all aboard, including 57 Canadians, it is not unreasonable to predict that the spotlight will be focused more intensely on the company when it releases its fourth-quarter earnings at the end of February.
Attention is always attracted to the company’s economic performance, given it is the country’s largest publicly-traded food processing company. But the recent events and their affect on its stock are factors that add to the interest.
Yesterday, shares of Maple Leaf Foods Inc . (TSX:MFI) closed at $25.76, gaining 3.83% on the day – a performance that ranked it third on the S&P/TSX Composite’s list of top performers in the session.
Earlier in the week analysts were asking: Is it time to buy the dip in Maple Food stock? This morning, the Winnipeg Free Press published an opinion piece entitled “Speaking out is what leaders do,” which was originally published by The Conversation Canada that highlights CEO Michael McCain’s very public rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump’s action that targeted and killed an Iranian general. The billionaire took to Twitter to post what he called his “personal reflections” Jan. 12 following the downing of the Ukrainian International Airline Flight 752 that killed all 176 aboard, including 57 Canadians. Among the dead were the wife and child of one of his employees.
“Even though he’s faced mixed reactions on social media McCain has helped to enhance a distinctly Canadian brand, Maple Leaf Foods, by defending Canadian values as the country still reels from the tragedy,” the opinion writer claimed.
At the end of next month, Maple Leaf will unveil both its fourth-quarter and year-end results, a period that spans a succession of tumultuous events. The company is rebounding from the recent lifting of a ban of Canadian meat imports by China, the largest market for pork in the world and one of Maple Leaf’s biggest export destinations.
It is also performed well as it navigated the challenge to its market share by the surging of plant-based protein products. The company responded with bolstering its own plant-protein division, which has performed well.
In the last year, the company stock has lost 11.8%. Given all that gone on, investors will be watching its prospects for 2020 closely.