Koppers Holdings Inc. $KOP Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

Key Points

• New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its Koppers stake by 90% in the first quarter, leaving it with 3,017 shares worth about $117,000.
• Several analysts have turned more positive on Koppers, with recent upgrades contributing to a consensus Moderate Buy rating and a $52.50 average target price.
• Koppers reported better-than-expected quarterly results, posting $0.57 EPS versus $0.44 expected and revenue of $455.3 million, while also paying a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share.

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP - Free Report) by 90.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,017 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 27,082 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System's holdings in Koppers were worth $117,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of KOP. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Koppers by 0.4% in the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 1,209,376 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $46,779,000 after buying an additional 5,124 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Koppers during the first quarter worth $348,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Koppers during the first quarter valued at $337,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Koppers in the 1st quarter valued at $164,000. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury increased its position in shares of Koppers by 37.0% in the 4th quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 15,256 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 4,123 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.75% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KOP. Singular Research upgraded Koppers to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen raised Koppers from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Koppers from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Koppers in a report on Monday, May 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $52.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Koppers news, CEO M Leroy Ball sold 3,412 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.90, for a total value of $149,786.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 436,243 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,151,067.70. The trade was a 0.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 7.28% of the company's stock.

Koppers Price Performance

Shares of KOP opened at $48.53 on Wednesday. The business's 50-day moving average is $43.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.41. The company has a market capitalization of $933.31 million, a P/E ratio of 12.77, a P/E/G ratio of 11.56 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 2.71. Koppers Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.00 and a fifty-two week high of $49.00.

Koppers (NYSE:KOP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $455.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $390.10 million. Koppers had a return on equity of 14.53% and a net margin of 4.10%.The company's revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. Koppers has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.800-4.600 EPS. Research analysts predict that Koppers Holdings Inc. will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Koppers Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. Koppers's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.47%.

About Koppers

Koppers Company, Inc is a global specialty chemicals and materials manufacturer serving diverse industrial markets. The company operates through two primary segments: Carbon Materials & Chemicals, which produces a range of coal tar–based products, phenolic specialties and carbon compounds; and Railroad Products & Services, which offers wood treating and infrastructure services for rail and utility customers.

In its Carbon Materials & Chemicals segment, Koppers supplies coal tar pitch, refined creosote, coal tar‐based distillates and phenolic resins used in aluminum smelting, graphite electrode manufacture, carbon fiber production, and water treatment applications.

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