XVARY Composite Score
57
/ 100
Below Average
Combines growth, value, risk, and momentum factors into a single institutional-grade score.
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What it is
Quaker Houghton makes industrial fluids and manages chemical programs for factories and metal shops.
How it gets paid
Last year Quaker Chemical made $1.9B in revenue. Other specialty products was the main engine at $0.81B, or 43% of sales.
Why it's growing
Revenue grew 2.7% last year. Actual EPS came in at $1.65 against $1.98 expected.
What just happened
Quaker missed by 16.7% last quarter.
At a Glance
B+ balance sheet — decent shape, but not bulletproof
75/100 earnings predictability — reasonably predictable
23.3x trailing p/e — priced about right
1.2% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
5.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
XVARY composite: 57/100 — below average
What They Do
Quaker Houghton makes industrial fluids and manages chemical programs for factories and metal shops.
Your factory does not swap chemical suppliers like snack brands. Quaker gets 42.9% of sales from other specialty products, 22.4% from metal removal fluids, and 20.5% from rolling lubricants. Leaving is painful because every change risks downtime, testing, and production delays.
How They Make Money
$1.9B
annual revenue · their business grew +2.7% last year
Other specialty products
$0.81B
Metal removal fluids
$0.43B
Rolling lubricants
$0.39B
Hydraulic fluids
$0.27B
The Products That Matter
Formulated industrial fluids and compounds
Chemical Specialty Products
$1.9B revenue
it's the entire business in this snapshot, generating $1.9B in revenue while carrying a company-wide 6.8% net margin. The growth was real. The margin still needs work.
core
Key Numbers
$170.97
current price
You are paying this much for the stock today, which is above the $151 target and leaves less room for error.
$151
18-month target
This target sits 12% below the current price, so the market already expects a cleaner story than the model does.
2.8%
operating margin
This means $2.80 of operating profit on every $100 of sales, so a small cost swing matters.
$838M
long-term debt
This debt stack is 22% of capital, so higher rates can drain cash before growth shows up.
Financial Health
B+
Strength
- balance sheet grade B+ — solid but not elite
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 40 / 100
- long-term debt $838M (22% of capital)
- net profit margin 6.9% — keeps 7 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 7% — $0.07 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B+ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total Return vs. Market
You invested $10000 in KWR 3 years ago → it's now worth $9010.
The index would have given you $13880.
source: institutional data · total return
What Just Happened
missed estimates
Quaker missed by 16.7% last quarter.
Actual EPS came in at $1.65 against $1.98 expected. Gross margin held at 36.2%, but that was not enough to stop the miss.
$483.4M
revenue
$1.65
eps
36.2%
gross margin
EPS miss
The $1.65 print missed the $1.98 estimate by 16.7%, which says demand is fine but pricing power is not bulletproof.
-
Quaker ought to make good operating progress this year.
-
The chemicals company probably put in a mixed showing for full-year 2025. (note: management was preparing full-year results as we went to press with this issue.) even though the benefits from the integration of recent acquisitions, stronger organic sales, and wider margins likely lifted the bottom line in the back half of the year, softness in the earlier part of 2025, owing to difficult operating conditions, probably caused earnings per share to slip about 1%, while sales increased 3%.
-
The top and bottom lines ought to advance at a 5%-10% clip in 2026, as positive business trends pick up and offset market headwinds.
-
The company is poised to do well in 2027 and beyond.
-
We look for earnings per share and sales to expand another 3%–5% next year, and should continue upward at a low-single-digit clip in the coming years.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What Could Go Wrong
The #1 risk is raw-material, tariff, and integration pressure hitting a 6.8% margin business.
Med
Input-cost and tariff pressure
KWR sells into heavy industrial markets and depends on global supply chains. If tariffs or raw-material costs move the wrong way, a 6.8% net margin does not leave much room to absorb it.
Margin pressure matters more here than at a wide-margin software company. Small cost misses hit earnings fast when you only keep about 7 cents of every revenue dollar.
Med
Acquisition execution
The recent growth profile looks acquisition-assisted. That can work. It can also create the classic industrial problem: bigger revenue, same economics.
With $838M in long-term debt and a B+ balance sheet, KWR can handle normal execution risk. It does not have infinite room for overpaying or under-integrating.
Med
Industrial demand slowdown
This is still a heavy industrial supplier. If customer production slows, chemical volumes and service activity can soften with it.
The issue is not survival. The issue is that a company trading at 23.3x earnings does not get much credit for simply staying flat.
Med
Share-price volatility after a sharp rebound
The stock is up 34% in 30 days, but the price stability score is still just 40 / 100. That is what a recovery chart looks like before it earns the word stable.
At $170.97, the stock also sits above the displayed $151 midpoint target. That leaves less room for disappointment if the next few quarters come in merely fine.
A business with a 6.8% net margin and $838M in long-term debt does not need a disaster to disappoint you. It just needs cost pressure, softer demand, or a messy integration.
Source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay Attention To
Key metric
Whether growth turns into margin
Revenue grew 33.0% to $1.9B. Net margin stayed at 6.8%. The next step is not more size alone — it is better economics.
Risk
Cost pressure on a thin-margin model
Tariffs, raw materials, and integration costs all matter more when you keep about 7 cents of every revenue dollar.
Flow
Institutional conviction
123 buyers versus 128 sellers is not a dramatic exit, but it is not broad accumulation either. Watch for that balance to improve.
Earnings
The next few quarters
Latest quarter came in at $1.75 EPS on $494M revenue. The real question is whether that builds toward the $8.00–$8.30 earnings path analysts expect.
Analyst Rankings
short-term outlook
average
momentum score 3. in human-speak, analysts see a stock acting pretty normally right now — not a clear near-term leader, not a train wreck.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 means the risk profile is middle-of-the-pack. You are not hiding here, but you are not buying pure chaos either.
chart momentum
below average
technical score 4 suggests the chart still has some work to do. A sharp bounce is not the same thing as durable momentum.
earnings predictability
75 / 100
Results tend to be reasonably dependable. That helps, but dependable mid-single-digit progress is not enough by itself to drive a big rerating.
Source: institutional data
Institutional Activity
123 buyers vs. 128 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 15.4M shares.
Source: institutional data
Price Targets
3-5 year target range
$86
$216
$171
Current price
$151
Target midpoint · 12% from current · 3-5yr high: $300 (+75% · 16% ann'l return)
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