Semanteon Capital Management LP Purchases Shares of 8,844 Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP)

Semanteon Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KOP) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 8,844 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $287,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in KOP. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Koppers by 83.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,204 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Koppers by 277.2% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 1,520 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 1,117 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of Koppers by 145.1% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,027 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Koppers during the 4th quarter valued at about $69,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its position in shares of Koppers by 345.6% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 2,905 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 2,253 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KOP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price on shares of Koppers in a research report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com raised Koppers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday.

Koppers Stock Down 5.6 %

KOP stock opened at $28.12 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.71. Koppers Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.00 and a fifty-two week high of $56.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 2.54. The company has a market cap of $575.96 million, a P/E ratio of 7.99 and a beta of 1.74.

Koppers (NYSE:KOP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.18). The firm had revenue of $477.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $497.00 million. Koppers had a return on equity of 16.71% and a net margin of 3.55%. On average, research analysts expect that Koppers Holdings Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Koppers Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Koppers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Koppers’s dividend payout ratio is 13.17%.

Koppers announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to purchase up to 16.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Koppers Profile

Koppers Holdings Inc provides treated wood products, wood preservation chemicals, and carbon compounds in the United States, Australasia, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Railroad and Utility Products and Services (RUPS), Performance Chemicals (PC), and Carbon Materials and Chemicals (CMC) segments.