Teacher Retirement System of Texas Makes New Investment in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,081 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 400.0% in the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 230 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 5.9% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 417,897 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,681,000 after acquiring an additional 23,189 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 12.0% in the first quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 420,269 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,949,000 after acquiring an additional 44,895 shares in the last quarter. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 24.4% in the first quarter. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC now owns 6,748 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 5.8% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,229 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $770,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Quaker Houghton Stock Down 2.1%

Shares of NYSE KWR opened at $119.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.79. The business has a 50-day moving average of $114.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.88. Quaker Houghton has a 1 year low of $95.91 and a 1 year high of $184.79.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $442.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $455.23 million. Quaker Houghton had a return on equity of 8.86% and a net margin of 5.20%. Quaker Houghton’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.485 per share. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 17th. Quaker Houghton’s payout ratio is 36.67%.

Quaker Houghton Profile

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.