Deutsche Bank Maintains Buy Rating On SLE

Deutsche Bank is maintaining its Buy rating on shares of Sara Lee Corp.

. “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.