HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases 57 Shares of WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,697 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in WD-40 were worth $1,625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 523,154 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $134,911,000 after acquiring an additional 9,418 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in WD-40 by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 378,115 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $97,524,000 after buying an additional 12,943 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in WD-40 by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 150,557 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $36,537,000 after purchasing an additional 5,095 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in WD-40 by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 129,894 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $31,523,000 after purchasing an additional 1,932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in WD-40 by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 114,033 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $27,673,000 after purchasing an additional 6,073 shares during the period. 91.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

WD-40 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDFC opened at $235.88 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $235.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $252.60. WD-40 has a fifty-two week low of $211.03 and a fifty-two week high of $292.36. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.19 and a beta of -0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.44.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. WD-40 had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 31.68%. The company had revenue of $153.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $147.40 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that WD-40 will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current year.

WD-40 Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. WD-40’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $322.00 target price on shares of WD-40 in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

WD-40 Profile

WD-40 Company develops and sells maintenance products, and homecare and cleaning products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides multi-purpose maintenance products that include aerosol sprays, non-aerosol trigger sprays, precision pens, and in liquid-bulk form products under the WD-40 Multi-Use brand name; specialty maintenance products, such as penetrants, degreasers, corrosion inhibitors, greases, lubricants, and rust removers under the WD-40 Specialist brand; and bike-specific products.