Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) Shares Acquired by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR - Free Report) by 11.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm 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 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton by 3.0% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 75,954 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $9,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,193 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 390.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 363 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 25.1% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,882 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $480,000 after acquiring an additional 778 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Quaker Houghton by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,229 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $770,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Quaker Houghton by 119.7% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.46% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on KWR shares. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Quaker Houghton from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Quaker Houghton from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $146.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, June 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Quaker Houghton has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $159.25.

Quaker Houghton Price Performance

KWR stock traded down $2.55 during trading on Friday, hitting $119.18. 148,773 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 145,108. Quaker Houghton has a 52 week low of $95.91 and a 52 week high of $184.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 2.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37.

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

Quaker Houghton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 17th will be given a dividend of $0.485 per share. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 17th. Quaker Houghton's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.67%.

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.