Blue Trust Inc. Buys 88 Shares of WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC)

Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) by 28.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 393 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in WD-40 were worth $101,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WDFC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of WD-40 by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,623,994 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $411,374,000 after buying an additional 6,532 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of WD-40 by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 307,097 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $67,452,000 after acquiring an additional 5,893 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of WD-40 by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 142,222 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $31,238,000 after purchasing an additional 3,458 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of WD-40 by 13.7% in the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 92,005 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $20,208,000 after purchasing an additional 11,112 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of WD-40 by 80.5% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 69,650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $15,298,000 after purchasing an additional 31,055 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.52% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William B. Noble sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.98, for a total transaction of $205,584.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,999 shares in the company, valued at $2,312,563.02. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

WD-40 Price Performance

Shares of WDFC stock opened at $262.82 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $258.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $243.01. The company has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.43 and a beta of -0.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. WD-40 has a twelve month low of $208.70 and a twelve month high of $278.78.

WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $156.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $149.20 million. WD-40 had a return on equity of 31.53% and a net margin of 11.79%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.21 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that WD-40 will post 5.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WD-40 Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.88 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. WD-40’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDFC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of WD-40 from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of WD-40 from $303.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th.

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.