Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$88.50.

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Stella-Jones from C$97.00 to C$81.00 in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$95.00 to C$85.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Stella-Jones from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Securities lowered their target price on Stella-Jones from C$103.00 to C$88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, CIBC upgraded Stella-Jones from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from C$83.00 to C$86.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th.

Insider Transactions at Stella-Jones

In related news, Director Rhodri Harries bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$69.50 per share, for a total transaction of C$347,500.00. Also, Director Patrick Kirkham bought 2,035 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 12,785 shares of company stock worth $896,221. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Stella-Jones Stock Performance

Shares of TSE SJ opened at C$70.13 on Monday. Stella-Jones has a 52-week low of C$65.43 and a 52-week high of C$98.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 6.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 93.08. The stock has a market capitalization of C$3.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.33, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is C$71.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$82.27.

Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported C$1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$1.70 by C($0.28). Stella-Jones had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 20.64%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.91 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Stella-Jones will post 6.4457565 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stella-Jones Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Stella-Jones’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.09%.

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.