Meridian Wealth Management LLC Acquires Shares of 1,550 WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,550 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $400,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WDFC. Profit Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in WD-40 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Profit Investment Management LLC now owns 16,067 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,529,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in WD-40 by 41.3% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 226 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in WD-40 by 1.8% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 3,794 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $833,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in WD-40 by 34.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 325 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in WD-40 by 28.9% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 393 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. 91.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $322.00 target price on shares of WD-40 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on WD-40 from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William B. Noble sold 800 shares of WD-40 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.98, for a total transaction of $205,584.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,312,563.02. The trade was a 8.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

WD-40 Price Performance

Shares of WDFC opened at $283.95 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.57 and a beta of -0.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.47. WD-40 has a one year low of $211.03 and a one year high of $292.36. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $265.48 and its 200-day moving average is $249.06.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $156.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $149.20 million. WD-40 had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 31.53%. WD-40’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.21 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that WD-40 will post 5.36 EPS for the current year.

WD-40 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. WD-40’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.88%.

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.