Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) Upgraded at Cibc World Mkts

Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. 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 research note on Wednesday. TD Securities reduced their target price on shares of Stella-Jones from C$103.00 to C$88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$97.00 to C$81.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$95.00 to C$85.00 in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$88.50.

Stella-Jones Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of SJ stock opened at C$70.67 on Tuesday. Stella-Jones has a 12-month low of C$65.43 and a 12-month high of C$98.00. The company has a market capitalization of C$3.98 billion, a PE ratio of 11.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$71.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$83.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 6.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 93.08.

Stella-Jones Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. Stella-Jones’s dividend payout ratio is 18.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.