StockNews.com Lowers Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Quaker Chemical from $220.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Quaker Chemical from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 26th.

Quaker Chemical Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KWR opened at $162.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 23.58, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Quaker Chemical has a 1-year low of $138.67 and a 1-year high of $221.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $164.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.43.

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $463.57 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $493.68 million. Quaker Chemical had a return on equity of 10.49% and a net margin of 6.56%. Quaker Chemical’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.93 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Quaker Chemical will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Chemical Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 17th will be paid a $0.485 dividend. This is an increase from Quaker Chemical’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 17th. Quaker Chemical’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.45%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Quaker Chemical

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Quaker Chemical in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new stake in Quaker Chemical in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Quaker Chemical by 105.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 156 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Quaker Chemical in the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in Quaker Chemical by 36.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 286 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. 77.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Quaker Chemical

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.