Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases New Position in WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)

Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in shares of WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 13,258 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,217,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of WD-40 by 309.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 37,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $9,566,000 after purchasing an additional 28,039 shares during the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in WD-40 by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 66,993 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $17,276,000 after buying an additional 14,358 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in WD-40 by 3.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 378,115 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $97,524,000 after purchasing an additional 12,943 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 24.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 53,950 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $13,913,000 after buying an additional 10,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of WD-40 by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 523,154 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $134,911,000 after buying an additional 9,418 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.52% of the company’s stock.

WD-40 Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of WDFC stock opened at $232.93 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.62 and a beta of -0.05. WD-40 has a 12-month low of $211.03 and a 12-month high of $292.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $239.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $255.04.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $153.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $147.40 million. WD-40 had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 31.68%. WD-40’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.28 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that WD-40 will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WD-40 Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 17th. This is a boost from WD-40’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. WD-40’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $322.00 price target on shares of WD-40 in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

WD-40 Profile

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.