Mutual of America Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR)

Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR) by 512.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,884 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,455 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Quaker Chemical were worth $3,177,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,218,698 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $432,424,000 after purchasing an additional 11,574 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,568,454 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $226,453,000 after purchasing an additional 21,526 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,359,780 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $203,314,000 after purchasing an additional 93,539 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 701,629 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $112,261,000 after purchasing an additional 90,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 681,245 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $108,999,000 after purchasing an additional 80,043 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Quaker Chemical Trading Down 1.3 %

Quaker Chemical stock opened at $188.43 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $198.99 and a 200 day moving average of $186.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.49. Quaker Chemical Co. has a 12-month low of $138.67 and a 12-month high of $221.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $467.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $470.55 million. Quaker Chemical had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 10.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.39 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Quaker Chemical Co. will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Quaker Chemical declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 28th that allows the company to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 4.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Quaker Chemical Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 16th will be paid a $0.455 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 15th. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. Quaker Chemical’s payout ratio is 29.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on KWR shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Quaker Chemical from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Quaker Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

About Quaker Chemical

Quaker Chemical Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets various formulated specialty chemical products for a range of heavy industrial and manufacturing applications in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers metal removal fluids, cleaning fluids, corrosion inhibitors, metal drawing and forming fluids, die-cast mold releases, heat treatment and quenchants, metal forging fluids, hydraulic fluids, specialty greases, offshore sub-sea energy control fluids, rolling lubricants, rod and wire drawing fluids, and surface treatment chemicals.