StockNews.com Upgrades Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) to “Buy”

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on KWR. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Quaker Chemical from $220.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Quaker Chemical from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 26th.

Quaker Chemical Stock Up 2.8 %

Quaker Chemical stock opened at $164.97 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $165.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $178.03. Quaker Chemical has a fifty-two week low of $138.67 and a fifty-two week high of $221.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.11, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.94.

Quaker Chemical (NYSE:KWR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.21 by ($0.08). Quaker Chemical had a return on equity of 10.49% and a net margin of 6.56%. The firm had revenue of $463.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $493.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Quaker Chemical will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Quaker Chemical

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Quaker Chemical in the first quarter valued at approximately $5,082,000. Ranger Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical by 40.0% in the fourth quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 96,769 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $20,652,000 after purchasing an additional 27,669 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical by 46.3% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 32,570 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $6,685,000 after purchasing an additional 10,310 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical by 3.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 108,122 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $22,193,000 after purchasing an additional 3,441 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Quaker Chemical by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,599,027 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $341,264,000 after purchasing an additional 11,807 shares during the last quarter. 77.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.