Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$88.50.

A number of research firms have recently commented on SJ. CIBC raised shares of Stella-Jones from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from C$83.00 to C$86.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. TD Securities cut their target price on shares of 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. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Stella-Jones from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Stella-Jones from C$97.00 to C$81.00 in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on Stella-Jones from C$95.00 to C$85.00 in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Stella-Jones Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of SJ opened at C$73.51 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$71.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$82.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 93.08, a current ratio of 6.57 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Stella-Jones has a one year low of C$65.43 and a one year high of C$98.00. The company has a market cap of C$4.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Stella-Jones Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Stella-Jones’s payout ratio is presently 18.09%.

Insider Activity

In other Stella-Jones news, Director Patrick Kirkham acquired 2,035 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of C$70.36 per share, with a total value of C$143,179.34. Also, Senior Officer Richard Cuddihy bought 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of C$70.85 per share, for a total transaction of C$35,424.00. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 12,785 shares of company stock valued at $896,221. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

About Stella-Jones

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.