Quaker cuts debt, maintains dividend

Article Excerpt

QUAKER CHEMICAL CORP. $21 (New York symbol KWR; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 11.1 million; Market cap: $233.1 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; WSSF Rating: Average) makes lubricants and chemicals that keep mechanical parts from corroding. Weaker demand from carmakers recently prompted Quaker to cut 10% of its workforce. These savings helped the company earn $0.45 a share in the third quarter of 2009. That’s up 9.8% from $0.41 a year earlier. The company needs oil to make its products, so it also gained from lower oil prices. However, sales fell 25.4%, to $118.9 million from $159.5 million. The company is using its improving earnings to pay down debt. Its long-term debt is $64.9 million (or 28% of its market cap), down from $84.2 million at the end of 2008. Quaker’s $0.23-a-share quarterly dividend seems safe, and yields 4.4% on a yearly basis. Quaker Chemical is a buy. buy…