Insiders Are Buying These Food-Related Stocks: Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN), Brinker International, Inc. (EAT)

Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT): Brinker International owns, operates and franchises the Chilli’s and Maggiano’s restaurant brands. Aside from the company’s restaurants in North America, Brinker also has restaurants in Asia, the Middle East and South America.

• On Jan. 28, CIO Maria Cortinas bought 500 shares at $32.80. While the total dollar value of the purchase is not very high (just $16,400), it still is the only insider activity YTD.
• With a current P/E of 16.71, the stock does not look undervalued. The future P/E, however, is a bit lower at 12.95.
• The stock has an average target price of $35.94, which implies that the stock could have an upside of a little over 6% from current prices. The most recent analyst price targets have been slightly higher than the $35.94 average, and are actually closer to $40, with all being either buy or overweight ratings.
• Brinker pays a dividend of 0.80/share (a yield of 2.36%). The company has paid a regular dividend to its shareholders since late 2005.
• My take: While Brinker restaurants are missing the cool factor that competitors like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) have in Wall Street, the fact of the matter is that EAT stock is much cheaper than Chipotle (P/E 16.71 vs a P/E of 36.68), and EPS growth is actually slightly higher at Brinker than in Chipotle (22.7% vs 19.94%). That is not to say that Chipotle is not a great growth story, but Brinker International is an excellently managed company, with good growth, excellent cash flows, a decent dividend, and, as it turns out, recent insider buying.

The article Insiders Are Buying These Food-related Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Bastardas.

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