Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) Hits New 52-Week Low – Here’s Why

Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on SJ shares. CIBC upgraded Stella-Jones from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from C$83.00 to C$86.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Stella-Jones from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on Stella-Jones from C$85.00 to C$79.00 in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of C$86.60.

Stella-Jones Stock Up 0.5 %

The firm has a market cap of C$3.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.64. 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 fifty day moving average of C$70.27 and a 200-day moving average of C$78.42.

Stella-Jones Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. This is an increase from Stella-Jones’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Stella-Jones’s payout ratio is 19.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Stella-Jones news, Director Patrick Kirkham purchased 2,035 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$70.36 per share, with a total value of C$143,179.34. 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.