Arizona State Retirement System Has $752,000 Holdings in Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR)

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,522 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 61 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Quaker Chemical were worth $752,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of KWR. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical by 299.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 482,199 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $80,479,000 after purchasing an additional 361,525 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Quaker Chemical by 507.0% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 294,516 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,123,000 after buying an additional 245,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Quaker Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at $19,832,000. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Quaker Chemical by 5.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,152,418 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $371,960,000 after buying an additional 115,746 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Quaker Chemical by 7.4% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,359,780 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $203,314,000 after buying an additional 93,539 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Quaker Chemical Trading Down 0.2 %

KWR opened at $188.00 on Friday. Quaker Chemical Co. has a 1-year low of $138.67 and a 1-year high of $221.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $198.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $186.79.

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.11. Quaker Chemical had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 10.22%. The firm had revenue of $467.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $470.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.39 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Quaker Chemical Co. will post 8.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Chemical Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 16th will be paid a $0.455 dividend. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 15th. Quaker Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.07%.

Quaker Chemical announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 28th that allows the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Quaker Chemical from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Quaker Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Quaker Chemical 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.