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

Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$95.38.

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Stella-Jones from C$99.00 to C$97.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$93.00 to C$85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. National Bank Financial cut shares of Stella-Jones from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from C$107.00 to C$95.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$100.00 to C$95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, TD decreased their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$106.00 to C$93.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th.

Stella-Jones Price Performance

TSE SJ opened at C$72.94 on Friday. Stella-Jones has a 52 week low of C$69.94 and a 52 week high of C$101.31. The company has a current ratio of 4.96, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 80.71. The stock has a market cap of C$3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of -0.15. The company has a 50-day moving average price of C$87.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$87.92.

Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$1.12 EPS for the quarter. Stella-Jones had a net margin of 8.66% and a return on equity of 14.85%. The firm had revenue of C$791.00 million during the quarter. Analysts forecast that Stella-Jones will post 6.4457565 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kevin Patrick Comerford acquired 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$72.06 per share, for a total transaction of C$36,030.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 6,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$445,042.56. The trade was a 8.81% increase in their position. Also, Director Kenner James acquired 937 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$73.22 per share, with a total value of C$68,607.14. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 1,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$134,285.48. This represents a 104.46% increase in their ownership of the stock. Insiders purchased 3,443 shares of company stock worth $247,814 over the last three months. Corporate 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. The vast majority of its revenue comes from the Pressure-treated wood segment.