Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP) by 20.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 568,787 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 97,586 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Koppers were worth $20,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Koppers by 1.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,187,926 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $43,942,000 after purchasing an additional 18,469 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Koppers by 91.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 770,169 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $28,134,000 after acquiring an additional 368,709 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Koppers by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 424,871 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $15,521,000 after acquiring an additional 20,586 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Koppers by 1.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 221,207 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $8,182,000 after acquiring an additional 3,402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Koppers by 586.8% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 196,704 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $7,276,000 after purchasing an additional 168,063 shares during the period. 92.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on KOP. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Koppers in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of Koppers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Singular Research raised Koppers to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Koppers news, CEO M Leroy Ball sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.92, for a total transaction of $189,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 315,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,949,691.68. This represents a 1.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen R. Tritch sold 3,533 shares of Koppers stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.08, for a total transaction of $131,003.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 47,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,770,087.96. This trade represents a 6.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,533 shares of company stock valued at $544,164 in the last quarter. Insiders own 6.55% of the company’s stock.

Koppers Stock Up 0.1 %

KOP stock opened at $31.75 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.92. The company has a market capitalization of $643.54 million, a P/E ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.83. Koppers Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.64 and a twelve month high of $58.23.

Koppers (NYSE:KOP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.12. Koppers had a net margin of 3.55% and a return on equity of 16.71%. The company had revenue of $554.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $571.80 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Koppers Holdings Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Koppers Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Koppers’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.95%.

Koppers Company Profile

Koppers Holdings Inc provides treated wood products, wood preservation chemicals, and carbon compounds in the United States, Australasia, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Railroad and Utility Products and Services (RUPS), Performance Chemicals (PC), and Carbon Materials and Chemicals (CMC) segments.