New York State Common Retirement Fund Boosts Holdings in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR - Free Report) by 11.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 78,783 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,160 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.45% of Quaker Houghton worth $9,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Quaker Houghton in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,978,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 759,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $106,870,000 after buying an additional 122,494 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Quaker Houghton during the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,399,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 92.3% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 187,715 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $26,423,000 after acquiring an additional 90,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Quaker Houghton in the fourth quarter valued at $11,951,000. 77.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Quaker Houghton Price Performance

NYSE:KWR traded up $4.45 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $122.09. 140,904 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 145,123. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Quaker Houghton has a 12-month low of $95.91 and a 12-month high of $184.79. The company has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a PE ratio of 23.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.37. The business's 50-day moving average price is $114.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.78.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $442.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $455.23 million. Quaker Houghton had a return on equity of 8.86% and a net margin of 5.20%. The company's revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Houghton Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 17th will be issued a $0.485 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 17th. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. Quaker Houghton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on KWR. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Quaker Houghton from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised Quaker Houghton from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $146.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Quaker Houghton currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $159.25.

Quaker Houghton Profile

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.