Bank of New York Mellon Corp Boosts Stock Position in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 126,795 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 3,139 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.72% of Quaker Houghton worth $15,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in KWR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Quaker Houghton by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,638,419 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $230,624,000 after buying an additional 23,832 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 759,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $106,870,000 after acquiring an additional 122,494 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 445,365 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $62,689,000 after purchasing an additional 51,393 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 420,269 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,949,000 after purchasing an additional 44,895 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 417,897 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $51,681,000 after purchasing an additional 23,189 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KWR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Quaker Houghton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $146.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Quaker Houghton from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Quaker Houghton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $159.25.

Quaker Houghton Trading Down 2.1%

NYSE:KWR opened at $119.18 on Friday. Quaker Houghton has a 12 month low of $95.91 and a 12 month high of $184.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $114.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $121.88. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $442.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $455.23 million. Quaker Houghton had a net margin of 5.20% and a return on equity of 8.86%. Quaker Houghton’s quarterly revenue was down 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

Quaker Houghton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 17th will be given a $0.485 dividend. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 17th. Quaker Houghton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.