Stepan (NYSE:SCL) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Stepan (NYSE:SCL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

Stepan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SCL opened at $55.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $52.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.15. Stepan has a one year low of $44.23 and a one year high of $94.77. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.18 and a beta of 1.00.

Stepan (NYSE:SCL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.33. Stepan had a return on equity of 4.21% and a net margin of 2.31%. The firm had revenue of $593.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $562.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Stepan will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

Stepan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.385 dividend. This represents a $1.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. Stepan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.60%.

Insider Activity at Stepan

In related news, Director Susan Lewis purchased 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $63.53 per share, with a total value of $31,765.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 1,896 shares in the company, valued at $120,452.88. This trade represents a 35.82% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 6.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its stake in Stepan by 35.9% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,252,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $68,960,000 after buying an additional 331,210 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Stepan in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,545,000. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. boosted its stake in Stepan by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 638,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,311,000 after buying an additional 108,556 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Stepan in the first quarter valued at about $4,971,000. Finally, Southernsun Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Stepan by 24.0% in the fourth quarter. Southernsun Asset Management LLC now owns 383,685 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $24,824,000 after buying an additional 74,238 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.70% of the company’s stock.

Stepan Company Profile

Stepan Company, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells specialty and intermediate chemicals to other manufacturers for use in various end products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Surfactants, Polymers, and Specialty Products. The Surfactants segment offers surfactants that are used in consumer and industrial cleaning and disinfection products, including detergents for washing clothes, dishes, carpets, and floors and walls, as well as shampoos and body washes; and other applications, such as fabric softeners, germicidal quaternary compounds, disinfectants, and lubricating ingredients.