Zacks Short Term Rating on Dean Foods Company (NYSE:DF)

The firm’s market cap is $1.69 billion. Equity Analysts at the Deutsche Bank maintains the rating on Dean Foods Company (NYSE:DF).

Dean Foods CFO, Chris Bellairs, said in the press release: “With volume performance coming in-line with our expectations and a continued focus on price realization, we delivered a third consecutive quarter of YoY improvements to gross profit and operating income”, he further added “We remain focus on our initiatives and opportunities to grow our brands, reduce our costs, increase the profitability of this business and create shareholder”. The brokerage firm has issued a Buy rating on the shares. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price objective for the company.

DF reported last quarter earnings on November 09.

In a recent survey, 4 analysts were expecting an average of $0.25 earnings per share for Dean Foods Company, for the 3 quarter of the fiscal year ending in 2016.

Net sales dropped 14.3% to $2.03bn.

Dean Foods Company most recently announcied its earnings on 2015-08-10. The 50-Day Moving Average price is $17.71 and the 200 Day Moving Average price is recorded at $17.36. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.06. Zacks upgraded shares of Dean Foods from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $20.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. Quarter-to-date through August 2015, fluid milk volumes declined approximately 0.9% year-over-year, on an unadjusted basis.

During a conference call with analysts, Dean Foods projected that its annual sales for DairyPure milk would reach $2.5 billion DairyPure is free of artificial growth hormones, and is meant to counter the increasing growth of organic almond- and soy-based milk alternatives. In May 2013, Dean Foods Co completed its spinoff of 77.049% interest in its 86.7%-owned WhiteWave Foods Co.

Out of 2 analysts covering Dean Foods (NYSE:DF), 1 rate it “Buy”, 0 “Sell”, while 1 “Hold”. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.50. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 14.3% compared to the same quarter past year.

DairyPure, Dean Foods’ national white milk brand, drove a few of that success. The Business procedures and distributes fluid milk along with other dairy case products in America.

A few of Dean’s regional brands, including Land O Lakes and Dean’s, already sell milk aimed at consumers who can’t digest regular milk. The Business operates about 68 production facilities in 32 states found according to customer needs along with other market factors, with distribution capabilities across 50 states. Its portfolio of brands include TruMoo, Alta Dena, Berkeley Farms, Country Fresh and Dean’s, among others.