Scotiabank Upgrades Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) to Outperform

Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Scotiabank from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage presently has a C$98.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of C$88.00. Scotiabank’s price objective points to a potential upside of 7.22% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on SJ. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Stella-Jones from C$78.00 to C$87.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cibc World Mkts cut Stella-Jones from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. CIBC decreased their price objective on Stella-Jones from C$90.00 to C$89.00 in a report on Friday, November 7th. Desjardins set a C$102.00 target price on Stella-Jones and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, National Bankshares lifted their price target on Stella-Jones from C$95.00 to C$107.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$97.14.

Stella-Jones Price Performance

Stella-Jones stock traded up C$3.30 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting C$91.40. 113,230 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 101,473. The company has a market cap of C$5.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.96, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of -0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 87.53, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 6.85. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$86.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$82.03. Stella-Jones has a 52-week low of C$62.26 and a 52-week high of C$92.84.

Stella-Jones (TSE:SJ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$1.59 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$958.00 million during the quarter. Stella-Jones had a return on equity of 18.36% and a net margin of 9.43%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Stella-Jones will post 6.4457565 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Michelle Annette Banik bought 472 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$84.60 per share, for a total transaction of C$39,931.20. Following the purchase, the director owned 472 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$39,931.20. This represents a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. Company 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.