Quaker’s latest acquisition is a shrewd move

Article Excerpt

QUAKER CHEMICAL CORP. $141 (New York symbol KWR; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 13.3 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.quakerchem.com) started up in 1918 and currently operates 36 plants in 21 countries. Those facilities make lubricants and chemicals that keep mechanical parts from rusting. Quaker’s products help its clients cut their costs and improve efficiency. The company has completed 12 acquisitions since 2010. Each was a smaller firm with attractive technologies and clientele. That helped cut the risk of the acquisitions. Acquisitions lifted revenue, earnings Due to those purchases, Quaker’s revenue increased 8.1%, from $708.2 million in 2012 to $765.9 million in 2014. The company gets 60% of its revenue from outside of the U.S., and the higher U.S. dollar cut its revenue to $737.6 million in 2015. Revenue recovered to $746.7 million in 2016. Earnings jumped 17.6%, from $3.63 a share (or a total of $47.4 million) in 2012 to…