WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) Director Eric Etchart Buys 500 Shares of Stock

WD-40 Company (NASDAQ:WDFC) Director Eric Etchart bought 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.02 per share, for a total transaction of $97,010.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 8,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,623,947.40. This trade represents a 6.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

WD-40 Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of WDFC stock opened at $193.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00 and a beta of 0.09. WD-40 Company has a 1 year low of $187.40 and a 1 year high of $292.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $204.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $221.11.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $163.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $153.90 million. WD-40 had a return on equity of 31.84% and a net margin of 14.68%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. WD-40 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.750-6.150 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that WD-40 Company will post 5.42 earnings per share for the current year.

WD-40 Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 20th will be given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 20th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. WD-40’s payout ratio is 56.29%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of WD-40 by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 568,302 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $138,666,000 after purchasing an additional 4,672 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 501,405 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $114,365,000 after acquiring an additional 53,225 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 399,186 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $91,059,000 after acquiring an additional 5,621 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 24.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 333,505 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $76,069,000 after acquiring an additional 65,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 263,301 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $60,056,000 after acquiring an additional 15,104 shares during the last quarter. 91.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson reduced their price target on WD-40 from $322.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of WD-40 in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.00.

About WD-40

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.