State of Alaska Department of Revenue Decreases Holdings in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue cut its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,590 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 234 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Quaker Houghton were worth $938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KWR. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Quaker Houghton during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 390.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 363 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 289 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 119.7% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Quaker Houghton in the fourth quarter worth $58,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 24.8% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 665 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 132 shares during the period. 77.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on KWR shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Quaker Houghton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $146.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Quaker Houghton from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Quaker Houghton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $159.25.

Quaker Houghton Stock Performance

NYSE:KWR opened at $116.03 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $108.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.45. Quaker Houghton has a twelve month low of $95.91 and a twelve month high of $193.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $442.91 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $455.23 million. Quaker Houghton had a net margin of 5.20% and a return on equity of 8.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

Quaker Houghton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 17th will be issued a $0.485 dividend. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 17th. Quaker Houghton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.67%.

About Quaker Houghton

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.