WD-40’s (WDFC) Buy Rating Reiterated at DA Davidson

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by investment analysts at DA Davidson in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $322.00 price objective on the specialty chemicals company’s stock. DA Davidson’s target price suggests a potential upside of 39.58% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on WD-40 from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th.

WD-40 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDFC opened at $230.70 on Tuesday. WD-40 has a fifty-two week low of $211.03 and a fifty-two week high of $292.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $257.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $257.35. The company has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.20 and a beta of -0.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $153.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $147.40 million. WD-40 had a return on equity of 31.68% and a net margin of 11.78%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.28 earnings per share. Analysts expect that WD-40 will post 5.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other WD-40 news, Director William B. Noble sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.70, for a total transaction of $289,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,317,310.30. This trade represents a 11.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of WD-40

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 80.5% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 69,650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $15,298,000 after acquiring an additional 31,055 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of WD-40 by 309.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 37,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $9,566,000 after purchasing an additional 28,039 shares during the period. DF Dent & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 66,993 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $17,276,000 after purchasing an additional 14,358 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in WD-40 by 3.5% in the third 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of WD-40 by 24.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 53,950 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $13,913,000 after acquiring an additional 10,711 shares during the last quarter. 91.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

WD-40 Company 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.