Stepan Company Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.39 (NYSE:SCL)

Key Points

• Stepan Company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, which will be paid to stockholders on September 15th, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.54 and a yield of 2.78%.
• The company's earnings report for the last quarter revealed an EPS of $0.52, falling short of the $0.92 consensus estimate, though revenue increased by 6.9% year-over-year.
• Wall Street analysts have upgraded Stepan's stock rating from "hold" to "buy", indicating a positive outlook on the company's performance.

Stepan Company (NYSE:SCL - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 30th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be given a dividend of 0.385 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, September 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th.

Stepan has a payout ratio of 37.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

Shares of SCL traded down $0.86 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $49.92. 5,213 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 126,649. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock's fifty day moving average is $55.89 and its 200 day moving average is $56.48. Stepan has a 1-year low of $44.23 and a 1-year high of $82.08. The stock has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.65 and a beta of 1.01.

Stepan (NYSE:SCL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.40). The firm had revenue of $594.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $598.25 million. Stepan had a net margin of 2.57% and a return on equity of 4.78%. The company's revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Stepan will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Stepan

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.