Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) Reaches New 12-Month Low Following Insider Selling

Shares of Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) reached a new 52-week low on Monday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as C$62.99 and last traded at C$63.57, with a volume of 17039 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$65.81.

Specifically, Director James Augustus Manzi sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$65.79, for a total transaction of C$65,788.60.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Stella-Jones Trading Down 2.0 %

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is C$68.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$74.65. The company has a market capitalization of C$3.61 billion, a PE ratio of 11.27, 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.

Stella-Jones Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. This is an increase from Stella-Jones’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Stella-Jones’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.56%.

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.