UPDATE: BMO Capital Markets Reiterates Market Perform Rating, Raises PT on TreeHouse Foods on 4Q12 EPS

In a report published Friday, BMO Capital Markets reiterated its Market Perform rating on TreeHouse Foods

, and raised its price target from $54.00 to $56.00. BMO Capital Markets noted, “THS posted 4Q12 EPS of $0.86 – in-line with consensus – but $0.05 ahead of our estimates owing to better-than-expected volume recovery in the North American Retail segment. THS provided 2013 EPS guidance of $3.00-$3.10, including 1) sales growth of 3.5%-4.5%, with volume/mix of 1.5%-2.0% driven largely by single-serve hot beverages; 2) gross margin of 22.2%, a 100 basis points yr/yr improvement; 3) operating expense of 13.1%-13.5%, including higher incentive based compensation; 4) interest expense of $49- $50 million; 4) tax rate of 31%-32%; and 5) share count of 37.8 million.” TreeHouse Foods closed on Thursday at $58.23.