The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Jan. 16, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Vishal Shreedhar has reiterated his "outperform" recommendation for Saputo. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Shreedhar gave his share target a $3 trim to $28. Analysts on average target the shares at $32.50. Mr. Shreedhar thinks macroeconomic and commodity challenges are "partly offsetting" improvement initiatives by Saputo. Mr. Shreedhar says in a note: "We acknowledge heightened uncertainty with our estimates given a volatile commodity backdrop. In the U.S., we anticipate higher block cheese prices to benefit sales growth. We expect flattish EBITDA margin year-over-year, reflecting a negative milk-cheese spread, offset by better efficiencies and lower duplicate costs, in addition to other factors. We expect Canada to benefit from pricing initiatives and efficiency improvement programs. In international, we anticipate continued pressure on the Argentina export business, partly offset by benefits from lower farmgate milk prices and higher milk intake in Australia. In Europe, notwithstanding higher farmgate milk prices, we expect performance to sequentially improve, reflecting an improved inventory position."