The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Oct. 31, edition that National Bank analyst Vishal Shreedhar continues to rank Maple Leaf Foods "outperform." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Shreedhar gave his share target a $3 trim to $36. Analysts on average target the shares at $36.76. Ahead of the Nov. 5 third quarter results, Mr. Shreedhar has adopted a more conservative outlook, lowering his forecast due to expected challenges in prepared meats margins from input cost inflation and pricing lag. Mr. Shreedhar says in a note: "Maple Leaf Foods is a company undergoing transformative change, and we are intrigued by the prospects. We acknowledge heightened risk, predominantly due to execution (given a long-term track record of underperformance) and commodity volatility; recent results, notwithstanding, have been strong. We believe that Maple Leaf can rerate higher if it demonstrates stable sales growth and EBITDA margin improvement over time. Maple Leaf currently trades at 8.5 times our NTM [next 12-month] EBITDA (excl. 16-per-cent stake in CPKR [Canada Packers Inc.]; 8.6 times including the stake). Certain branded consumer packaged protein companies trade at nine to 12 times consensus NTM EBITDA (IFRS adjusted)."