Comerica Bank Acquires 435 Shares of Quaker Houghton $KWR

Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) by 6.1% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,544 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 435 shares during the period. Comerica Bank’s holdings in Quaker Houghton were worth $932,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 431,054 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $53,283,000 after buying an additional 52,962 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 420,269 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,949,000 after buying an additional 44,895 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 417,897 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,681,000 after buying an additional 23,189 shares during the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 323,114 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $39,940,000 after buying an additional 8,955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 26.6% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 260,665 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $32,221,000 after buying an additional 54,800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on KWR. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Quaker Houghton from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $146.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, June 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $135.00 price target on shares of Quaker Houghton and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Quaker Houghton in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold 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 $150.75.

Quaker Houghton Stock Performance

Shares of KWR stock opened at $144.63 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -336.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.44. Quaker Houghton has a 52 week low of $95.91 and a 52 week high of $180.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $129.18 and a 200-day moving average of $120.73.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.82 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $483.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $463.57 million. Quaker Houghton had a positive return on equity of 8.35% and a negative net margin of 0.39%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.13 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Quaker Houghton Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be given a dividend of $0.508 per share. This is a positive change from Quaker Houghton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 17th. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Quaker Houghton’s payout ratio is -451.16%.

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.