Cascades Inc. (TSE:CAS) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Cascades Inc. (TSE:CAS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$13.25.

A number of research firms have weighed in on CAS. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Cascades from C$12.00 to C$13.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Cascades from C$12.00 to C$14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Scotiabank raised shares of Cascades from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from C$12.00 to C$15.50 in a research note on Monday. Finally, CIBC lifted their price target on shares of Cascades from C$12.00 to C$13.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th.

Insider Activity at Cascades

In other news, Senior Officer Luc Langevin sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$11.30, for a total transaction of C$33,900.00. 23.78% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cascades Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:CAS opened at C$12.91 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$12.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$10.70. The stock has a market capitalization of C$1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 119.55, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Cascades has a 1 year low of C$8.83 and a 1 year high of C$14.96.

Cascades (TSE:CAS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported C$0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.14 by C$0.13. Cascades had a negative net margin of 0.91% and a negative return on equity of 1.44%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Cascades will post 1.2959309 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cascades Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.72%. Cascades’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -114.29%.

About Cascades

Cascades Inc produces, converts, and markets packaging and tissue products in Canada and the United States. The company operates through three segments: Containerboard, Specialty Products, and Tissue Papers. It offers various packaging solutions and tissue products comprised of recycled fibers; tissue papers, comprising parent rolls of virgin and recycled fibres; specialty products, including uncoated recycled boxboards; and containerboards.