Invesco Ltd. Has $8.62 Million Stock Position in Stepan Company $SCL

Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Stepan Company (NYSE:SCL) by 7.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 156,642 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,840 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned approximately 0.69% of Stepan worth $8,622,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SCL. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of Stepan by 24.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 14,018 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $907,000 after purchasing an additional 2,746 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Stepan by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 46,688 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,022,000 after purchasing an additional 1,898 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Stepan by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,310,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,806,000 after purchasing an additional 18,392 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Stepan by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 12,865 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $832,000 after purchasing an additional 528 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury increased its stake in shares of Stepan by 31.3% during the 4th quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 13,223 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $856,000 after purchasing an additional 3,153 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.70% of the company’s stock.

Stepan Stock Performance

NYSE:SCL opened at $50.49 on Tuesday. Stepan Company has a 1 year low of $44.23 and a 1 year high of $82.08. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of 19.88 and a beta of 0.98.

Stepan (NYSE:SCL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.40). Stepan had a net margin of 2.57% and a return on equity of 4.78%. The company had revenue of $594.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $598.25 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. Stepan’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Stepan Company will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

Stepan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a $0.385 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Stepan’s dividend payout ratio is 60.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Stepan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Zacks Research lowered shares of Stepan from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Stepan has a consensus rating of “Sell”.

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.