Cooke & Bieler LP Purchases New Position in H. B. Fuller Company (NYSE:FUL)

Cooke & Bieler LP acquired a new position in shares of H. B. Fuller Company (NYSE:FUL - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 656,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock, valued at approximately $36,830,000. Cooke & Bieler LP owned about 1.21% of H. B. Fuller at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in H. B. Fuller in the fourth quarter valued at $266,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in H. B. Fuller in the fourth quarter valued at $783,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in H. B. Fuller in the fourth quarter valued at $465,000. Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in H. B. Fuller by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 127,896 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $8,630,000 after buying an additional 15,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in H. B. Fuller by 731.1% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 1,104 shares during the last quarter. 95.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FUL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of H. B. Fuller from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Baird R W upgraded shares of H. B. Fuller from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of H. B. Fuller from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $67.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Robert J. Martsching sold 9,546 shares of H. B. Fuller stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total value of $613,807.80. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 14,980 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $963,214. This trade represents a 38.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.99% of the company's stock.

H. B. Fuller Price Performance

NYSE:FUL traded up $0.83 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $61.20. 521,618 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 396,396. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $57.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.30 billion, a PE ratio of 33.08, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.12. H. B. Fuller Company has a 1-year low of $47.56 and a 1-year high of $87.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

H. B. Fuller (NYSE:FUL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $898.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $894.87 million. H. B. Fuller had a return on equity of 11.50% and a net margin of 2.92%. H. B. Fuller's revenue was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.12 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that H. B. Fuller Company will post 4.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

H. B. Fuller Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $0.235 dividend. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. H. B. Fuller's dividend payout ratio is currently 50.81%.

About H. B. Fuller

H.B. Fuller Company, together with its subsidiaries, formulates, manufactures, and markets adhesives, sealants, coatings, polymers, tapes, encapsulants, additives, and other specialty chemical products. It operates through three segments: Hygiene, Health and Consumable Adhesives; Engineering Adhesives; and Construction Adhesives.