Deutsche Bank Maintains Buy Rating On SLE

Deutsche Bank is maintaining its Buy rating on shares of Sara Lee Corp. SLE. “Even with decent stock performance over the last month, we see risk / reward skewed positively between current valuation vs. future M&A optionality,” Deutsche Bank writes. “A combination of minimal debt, cash returns to shareholders, insider buying and M&A optionality offset near term commodity risk in our view. “We expect Sara Lee to report operating EPS of $0.22 vs. a restated $0.23 a year ago. Our model assumes 7-8% sales growth led by pass-through pricing, with EBIT of $230 mil.” Sara Lee closed Monday at $18.62.