Brokerages Set Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) Price Target at $150.75

Key Points

• Quaker Houghton has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from analysts, with one hold rating and three buy ratings, and a 1-year target price set at $150.75.
• Recently, the firm increased its quarterly dividend to $0.508 per share, up from the previous $0.49, reflecting a 1.4% yield.
• The company reported earnings of $1.71 per share for the last quarter, which missed estimates by $0.11, although revenue increased by 4.3% year-over-year.

Shares of Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the four research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $150.75.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Quaker Houghton in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Quaker Houghton and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th.

Quaker Houghton Stock Down 3.0%

NYSE KWR traded down $4.25 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $138.80. The stock had a trading volume of 183,039 shares, compared to its average volume of 138,423. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 2.56 and a quick ratio of 1.87. Quaker Houghton has a 1 year low of $95.91 and a 1 year high of $180.96. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of -322.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $132.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.80.

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.11). Quaker Houghton had a positive return on equity of 8.35% and a negative net margin of 0.39%.The company had revenue of $483.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $463.57 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.13 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Quaker Houghton will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Quaker Houghton Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, October 17th will be issued a $0.508 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 17th. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. This is an increase from Quaker Houghton's previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. Quaker Houghton's payout ratio is currently -451.16%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Quaker Houghton by 54.4% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 673 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 7,224 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $809,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 62.7% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 10,129 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $1,134,000 after buying an additional 3,905 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 46,396 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $5,194,000 after buying an additional 3,006 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Quaker Houghton by 234.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,399 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $269,000 after buying an additional 1,681 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.46% of the company's stock.

About Quaker Houghton

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.