Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s Why

Shares of Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as C$65.11 and last traded at C$65.85, with a volume of 34497 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$66.42.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Securities dropped their target price on Stella-Jones from C$103.00 to C$88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Stella-Jones from C$97.00 to C$81.00 in a report on Thursday, November 7th. CIBC upgraded Stella-Jones from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from C$83.00 to C$86.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Stella-Jones from C$85.00 to C$79.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded Stella-Jones from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of C$86.60.

Stella-Jones Stock Up 2.0 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 6.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 87.53. The firm has a market cap of C$3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day moving average is C$70.40 and its 200 day moving average is C$78.76.

Stella-Jones Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. This is a boost from Stella-Jones’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Stella-Jones’s payout ratio is presently 19.56%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Patrick Kirkham bought 2,035 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$70.36 per share, with a total value of C$143,179.34. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Stella-Jones Company Profile

Stella-Jones Inc produces and sells lumber and wood products. The company operates in two segments: Pressure-treated wood, which includes utility poles, railway ties, residential lumber, and industrial products; and Logs & Lumber segment comprises of the sales of logs harvested in the course of the company’s procurement process that is determined to be unsuitable for use as utility poles, it also includes the sale of excess lumber to local home-building markets.