Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Makes New Investment in Stantec Inc. (NYSE:STN)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in Stantec Inc. (NYSE:STN) (TSE:STN) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 5,111 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $425,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Stantec by 1.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,151,060 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $269,279,000 after purchasing an additional 59,589 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Stantec during the fourth quarter worth $1,363,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Stantec during the fourth quarter valued at $24,553,000. AJOVista LLC purchased a new position in Stantec in the 4th quarter worth about $867,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Stantec during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,390,000. 63.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Atb Cap Markets lowered shares of Stantec from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th.

Stantec Price Performance

STN opened at $81.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.74 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Stantec Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.55 and a 12-month high of $87.53. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.23.

Stantec (NYSE:STN) (TSE:STN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The business services provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.04. Stantec had a return on equity of 16.51% and a net margin of 5.19%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.81 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Stantec Inc. will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stantec Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.152 dividend. This represents a $0.61 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Stantec’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.07%.

Stantec Company Profile

Stantec Inc provides professional services in the areas of infrastructure and facilities to the public and private sectors in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It offers evaluation, planning, and designing infrastructure solutions; solutions for sustainable water resources, planning, management, and infrastructure; environmental services; integrated architecture, engineering, interior design, and planning solutions for buildings; and energy and resources solutions.