Strs Ohio Has $64,000 Stock Holdings in Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR)

Strs Ohio increased its stake in Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR) by 50.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 300 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Quaker Chemical were worth $64,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 507.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 294,516 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,123,000 after purchasing an additional 245,993 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Quaker Chemical by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 681,245 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $108,999,000 after buying an additional 80,043 shares in the last quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Quaker Chemical by 113.2% in the third quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP now owns 44,901 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $7,184,000 after acquiring an additional 23,839 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Quaker Chemical by 35.5% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 67,619 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $10,819,000 after acquiring an additional 17,722 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical by 9.8% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 179,480 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,717,000 after acquiring an additional 15,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KWR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Quaker Chemical from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Quaker Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Quaker Chemical Stock Performance

Shares of Quaker Chemical stock opened at $187.80 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Quaker Chemical Co. has a 52 week low of $138.67 and a 52 week high of $221.94. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $197.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $189.25.

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 10.22% and a net margin of 5.77%. The business had revenue of $467.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $470.55 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.39 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Quaker Chemical Co. will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Chemical declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 28th that permits the company to buyback $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to reacquire up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Quaker Chemical Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 16th were issued a dividend of $0.455 per share. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 15th. Quaker Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.07%.

Quaker Chemical 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.