Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Sells 100 Shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) by 3.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,136 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Quaker Houghton were worth $388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,638,419 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $230,624,000 after acquiring an additional 23,832 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 759,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $106,870,000 after acquiring an additional 122,494 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 27.8% during the fourth quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 555,219 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $78,153,000 after acquiring an additional 120,916 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 445,365 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $62,689,000 after acquiring an additional 51,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $51,949,000 after acquiring an additional 44,895 shares during the last quarter. 77.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Quaker Houghton from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Quaker Houghton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $146.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Quaker Houghton presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $159.25.

Quaker Houghton Stock Up 2.6%

NYSE:KWR opened at $126.45 on Wednesday. Quaker Houghton has a fifty-two week low of $95.91 and a fifty-two week high of $193.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 2.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $111.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.76.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.06. Quaker Houghton had a net margin of 5.20% and a return on equity of 8.86%. The firm had revenue of $442.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $455.23 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Quaker Houghton’s revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Houghton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.485 per share. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 17th. Quaker Houghton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.67%.

Quaker Houghton 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.