Stepan Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.39 (NYSE:SCL)

Stepan (NYSE:SCL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 29th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.385 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%.

Stepan has raised its dividend by an average of 6.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 57 years. Stepan has a payout ratio of 36.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Stepan to earn $4.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.54 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.2%.

Stepan Price Performance

Shares of SCL stock opened at $51.60 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.12. The company has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.35 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Stepan has a twelve month low of $44.23 and a twelve month high of $94.77.

Stepan (NYSE:SCL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.84 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $562.77 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Stepan will post 3.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut Stepan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Stepan

In other news, Director Susan Lewis purchased 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $63.53 per share, with a total value of $31,765.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 1,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,452.88. This trade represents a 35.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 6.90% 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.