Critical Contrast: Quaker Houghton (KWR) versus Its Rivals

Quaker Houghton (NYSE:KWR) is one of 295 public companies in the “Chemicals” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Quaker Houghton to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Quaker Houghton has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quaker Houghton’s peers have a beta of 0.93, indicating that their average stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Quaker Houghton and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Quaker Houghton	0	2	4	0	2.67
Quaker Houghton Competitors	3248	12221	14140	519	2.40

Quaker Houghton presently has a consensus target price of $186.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.66%. As a group, “Chemicals” companies have a potential upside of 8.10%. Given Quaker Houghton’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Quaker Houghton is more favorable than its peers.

Dividends

Quaker Houghton pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Quaker Houghton pays out 37.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Chemicals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 103.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Quaker Houghton has raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Quaker Houghton and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Quaker Houghton	$1.89 billion	-$2.49 million	28.28
Quaker Houghton Competitors	$6.36 billion	$222.31 million	10.00

Quaker Houghton’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Quaker Houghton. Quaker Houghton is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Quaker Houghton and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Quaker Houghton	4.80%	9.84%	4.81%
Quaker Houghton Competitors	-59.67%	0.26%	-1.43%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.5% of Quaker Houghton shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.0% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Quaker Houghton shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Quaker Houghton beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

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. The company also provides chemical management services. It serves steel, aluminum, automotive, aerospace, offshore, container, mining, and metalworking companies. The company was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.