Brokerages Set Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) PT at $152.33

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $152.3333.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on KWR shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Quaker Houghton in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Quaker Houghton from $149.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Zacks Research raised Quaker Houghton from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Quaker Houghton in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Trading of Quaker Houghton

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Quaker Houghton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,331,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Quaker Houghton by 1,897.7% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 321,637 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $42,376,000 after buying an additional 305,537 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Quaker Houghton by 79.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 661,888 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $87,204,000 after buying an additional 293,977 shares during the last quarter. Scopus Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Quaker Houghton in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,353,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 3,639.8% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 79,696 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $10,500,000 after acquiring an additional 77,565 shares during the last quarter. 77.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Quaker Houghton Price Performance

KWR opened at $136.16 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a PE ratio of -277.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The business’s 50-day moving average is $132.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $127.82. Quaker Houghton has a 1 year low of $95.91 and a 1 year high of $161.46.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.14. Quaker Houghton had a positive return on equity of 8.64% and a negative net margin of 0.48%.The firm had revenue of $493.84 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $475.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Houghton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.508 per share. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. Quaker Houghton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -414.29%.

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.