Credit Suisse Upgrading Smithfield Foods

Credit Suisse is out with a research report on Smithfield Foods SFD and it is upgrading shares to Outperform and is raising its price target to $29 from $23. In a note to clients, Credit Suisse writes, "We are raising our Smithfield rating to Outperform from Neutral, and our target price to $29 from $23. We are raising our 2011/2012/2013 EPS estimates to $2.40/$2.75/$3.00 (from $2.20/$2.30/$2.50) respectively. As we published in our "Meat Export" report today, we think the elements are in place for an export-propelled U.S. meat industry driven by 15% pork export growth with Smithfield as the main beneficiary. In the near-term, we see upside to next year's hog futures as the U.S. pork supply struggles to keep pace with double-digit export growth allowing hog prices to hold their current highs. This puts us $2.50/head above the futures curve and $0.25 per share above consensus for F13." Shares of SFD closed at $22.62 yesterday.