California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 238 Shares of Stepan (NYSE:SCL)

California State Teachers Retirement System cut its position in shares of Stepan (NYSE:SCL) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,944 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 238 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.09% of Stepan worth $1,355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Stepan by 781.4% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 617 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Stepan by 40.8% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,315 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Stepan during the 4th quarter valued at about $239,000. Howe & Rusling Inc. grew its position in Stepan by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 4,254 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $275,000 after acquiring an additional 837 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC bought a new position in Stepan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $294,000. 82.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wall Street Zen lowered Stepan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd.

Stepan Price Performance

SCL opened at $56.03 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Stepan has a 1 year low of $44.23 and a 1 year high of $94.77. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.35 and a beta of 1.02.

Stepan (NYSE:SCL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.33. Stepan had a return on equity of 4.21% and a net margin of 2.31%. The business had revenue of $593.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $562.77 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. Stepan’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Stepan will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Stepan Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.385 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.75%. Stepan’s payout ratio is 62.60%.

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.