Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 1,744 Shares of Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR)

Prudential Financial Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical Co. (NYSE:KWR) by 11.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,855 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 1,744 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of Quaker Chemical worth $1,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Quaker Chemical by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP now owns 28,102 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,956,000 after buying an additional 3,254 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,638,419 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $230,624,000 after acquiring an additional 23,832 shares during the period. Bridge City Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Quaker Chemical by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 16,107 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,267,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Quaker Chemical by 72.1% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 4,050 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Quaker Chemical in the 4th quarter worth $422,000. Institutional investors own 77.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on KWR shares. StockNews.com cut Quaker Chemical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Quaker Chemical from $172.00 to $169.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Quaker Chemical from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday.

Quaker Chemical Price Performance

Shares of Quaker Chemical stock opened at $106.09 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Quaker Chemical Co. has a 52 week low of $104.25 and a 52 week high of $201.18. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $147.47. The company has a market capitalization of $1.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.44.

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.62 by ($0.29). The business had revenue of $444.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $430.47 million. Quaker Chemical had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 6.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Quaker Chemical Co. will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quaker Chemical Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be issued a $0.485 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. Quaker Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.80%.

About Quaker Chemical

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.