Quaker Houghton $KWR Shares Acquired by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) by 151.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 912 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 549 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Quaker Houghton were worth $102,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Quaker Houghton by 14.0% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 431,054 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $53,283,000 after buying an additional 52,962 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Quaker Houghton by 12.0% during 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 buying an additional 44,895 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Quaker Houghton by 5.9% during 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 buying an additional 23,189 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Quaker Houghton by 2.9% during the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 323,114 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $39,940,000 after buying an additional 8,955 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Quaker Houghton by 26.6% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 260,665 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $32,221,000 after buying an additional 54,800 shares in the last quarter. 77.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on KWR shares. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $135.00 target price on Quaker Houghton and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Quaker Houghton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $146.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Quaker Houghton in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Quaker Houghton currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $150.75.

Quaker Houghton Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:KWR opened at $132.40 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $134.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $120.72. Quaker Houghton has a 52 week low of $95.91 and a 52 week high of $180.96. The company has a market capitalization of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -307.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.56.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $483.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $463.57 million. Quaker Houghton had a positive return on equity of 8.35% and a negative net margin of 0.39%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.13 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Houghton Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, October 17th will be given a $0.508 dividend. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. This is an increase from Quaker Houghton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 17th. Quaker Houghton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -451.16%.

Quaker Houghton Company 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.