SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Buys Shares of 9,005 WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,005 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock, valued at approximately $2,185,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.07% of WD-40 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WDFC. Barclays PLC raised its stake in WD-40 by 309.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 37,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $9,566,000 after purchasing an additional 28,039 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of WD-40 in the fourth quarter worth $6,537,000. DF Dent & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 27.3% during the third quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 66,993 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $17,276,000 after buying an additional 14,358 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new position in WD-40 during the fourth quarter valued at $3,217,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in WD-40 by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 378,115 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $97,524,000 after acquiring an additional 12,943 shares in the last quarter. 91.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $322.00 target price on shares of WD-40 in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

WD-40 Stock Up 0.2 %

WD-40 stock traded up $0.36 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $238.98. The company had a trading volume of 69,880 shares, compared to its average volume of 96,765. The firm's fifty day moving average is $235.90 and its 200-day moving average is $254.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.78 and a beta of -0.05. WD-40 has a fifty-two week low of $211.03 and a fifty-two week high of $292.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.44 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.39 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $153.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $147.40 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.28 earnings per share. WD-40's revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that WD-40 will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current year.

WD-40 Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This is a boost from WD-40's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 17th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. WD-40's payout ratio is presently 72.03%.

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.