Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) Reaches New 1-Year Low After Insider Selling

Stella-Jones Inc. (TSE:SJ)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading 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 traded. 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 that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$65.79, for a total transaction of C$65,788.60.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Stella-Jones from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. CIBC raised Stella-Jones from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from C$83.00 to C$86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target 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 issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Stella-Jones presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of C$86.60.

Stella-Jones Stock Down 2.0 %

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 stock has a market capitalization of C$3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.27, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$68.91 and a 200-day moving average price of C$74.84.

Stella-Jones Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This is an increase from Stella-Jones’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. Stella-Jones’s payout ratio is presently 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.