Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) Holdings Boosted by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) by 8.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,876 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned about 0.07% of Quaker Houghton worth $1,592,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KWR. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Quaker Houghton by 14.0% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 95,075 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $11,752,000 after buying an additional 11,671 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton by 2.5% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 126,795 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $15,673,000 after purchasing an additional 3,139 shares during the last quarter. Palisade Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Palisade Capital Management LP now owns 131,900 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $16,304,000 after purchasing an additional 896 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Quaker Houghton by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 75,954 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $9,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Quaker Houghton during the 1st quarter worth about $257,000. Institutional investors own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Quaker Houghton Price Performance

KWR stock opened at $117.63 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $114.85 and a 200-day moving average of $121.78.

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

Quaker Houghton Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 17th will be paid a $0.485 dividend. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.