Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 6,800 WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,800 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,626,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned about 0.05% of WD-40 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 1.3% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 3,861 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $785,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Cim Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 3.6% in the first quarter. Cim Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,534 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $273,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 0.8% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 7,783 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,385,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 3.2% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,075 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Republic Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 0.9% in the first quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,399 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,317,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. 91.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $313.00 target price on shares of WD-40 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling at WD-40

In related news, CEO Steven A. Brass bought 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $232.22 per share, with a total value of $100,319.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 20,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,771,424.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Steven A. Brass bought 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $232.22 per share, with a total value of $100,319.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 20,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,771,424.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Pendarvis bought 328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $234.75 per share, with a total value of $76,998.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 4,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,158,256.50. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 942 shares of company stock valued at $226,897. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

WD-40 Trading Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ WDFC opened at $229.85 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.88 and a beta of -0.06. WD-40 has a 52-week low of $181.38 and a 52-week high of $278.78. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $253.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $241.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 9th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $139.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.51 million. WD-40 had a net margin of 12.19% and a return on equity of 32.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that WD-40 will post 5.22 EPS for the current year.

WD-40 Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. WD-40’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.26%.

About WD-40

WD-40 Company develops and sells maintenance products, and homecare and cleaning products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides multi-purpose maintenance products that include aerosol sprays, non-aerosol trigger sprays, precision pens, and in liquid-bulk form products under the WD-40 Multi-Use brand name; specialty maintenance products, such as penetrants, degreasers, corrosion inhibitors, greases, lubricants, and rust removers under the WD-40 Specialist brand; and bike-specific products.