Aecon Group (TSE:ARE) Reaches New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Shares of Aecon Group Inc. (TSE:ARE) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$47.41 and last traded at C$47.35, with a volume of 41352 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$46.47.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on ARE. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Aecon Group from C$44.00 to C$44.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. National Bank Financial boosted their price target on shares of Aecon Group from C$45.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Aecon Group from C$40.00 to C$45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Aecon Group from C$41.00 to C$44.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price target on shares of Aecon Group from C$43.00 to C$45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aecon Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$46.15.

Aecon Group Price Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is C$41.38 and its 200-day moving average price is C$34.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 65.17. The stock has a market capitalization of C$3.23 billion, a PE ratio of 204.83, a PEG ratio of 18.18 and a beta of 0.97.

Aecon Group (TSE:ARE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The company reported C$0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$1.54 billion for the quarter. Aecon Group had a net margin of 0.28% and a return on equity of 1.66%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Aecon Group Inc. will post 1.3793321 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aecon Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd were given a dividend of $0.1925 per share. This represents a $0.77 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 23rd. Aecon Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 330.43%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Eric Stuart Rosenfeld sold 125,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$41.64, for a total transaction of C$5,205,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 184,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$7,670,088. This represents a 40.43% decrease in their position. Corporate insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

About Aecon Group

Aecon Group Inc is a Canada-based company that operates in two segments: Construction and Concessions. The Construction segment includes various aspects of the construction of public and private infrastructure projects, mainly in the transportation sector. Its concessions segment is engaged in the development, financing, construction, and operation of infrastructure projects. Aecon generates the majority of its revenue from the Construction segment.