Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
The Company’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the trading symbol KWR. The Board declared cash dividends that totaled $1.88 per share of outstanding common stock or $33.6 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 and $1.78 per share of outstanding common stock or $32.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2023. In February and May 2024, our Board declared quarterly cash dividends of $0.455 per share of outstanding common stock, payable to shareholders of record in April 2024 and July 2024, respectively. Subsequently, our Board declared quarterly dividends of $0.485 per share of outstanding common stock in July and November 2024, payable to shareholders of record in October 2024 and January 2025, respectively. We currently expect to continue paying comparable cash dividends on a quarterly basis in the future. Future declaration of dividends and the establishment of future record dates and payment dates are subject to the final determination of our Board, and will be based on our future financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, capital expenditure requirements, contractual restrictions, anticipated cash needs, business prospects, provisions of applicable law and other factors our Board may deem relevant.
There are currently no restrictions on the Company’s ability to pay dividends. However, in the event that our net leverage ratio were to rise above 2.5x, certain restrictions would apply. Refer to the description of the Company’s primary Credit Facility in Note 19, Debt , to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Report for more information about the covenants.
As of January 17, 2025, 17,673,437 shares of Quaker common stock were issued and outstanding and were held by 549 shareholders of record. Each share of common stock is entitled to one vote per share.
Reference is made to the information in Item 12 of this Report under the caption “Equity Compensation Plans,” which is incorporated herein by this reference.
The following table sets forth information concerning shares of the Company’s common stock acquired by the Company during the fourth quarter of 2024 for the period covered by this report:
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Period (a)
Total Number
of Shares
Purchased (1)(2) (b)
Average
Price Paid
Per Share (1) (2) (c)
Total Number of
Shares Purchased
as part of Publicly
Announced Plans
or Programs (2) (d)
Approximate Dollar
Value of Shares that
May Yet be
Purchased Under the
Plans or Programs (2)
October 1 - October 31, 2024 72,200 $ 157.45 72,033 $ 115,756,544
November 1 - November 30, 2024 3,353 $ 167.15 — $ 115,756,544
December 1 - December 31, 2024 103,068 $ 145.80 102,876 $ 100,758,700
Total 178,621 $ 150.91 174,909 $ 100,758,700
(1) 3,712 of these shares were acquired from employees related to the surrender of shares in payment of the vesting of restricted stock awards or units. The price paid for shares acquired from employees pursuant to employee benefit and equity compensation plans is based on the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the date of vesting as specified by the plan pursuant to which the applicable option, restricted stock award, or restricted stock unit was granted.
(2) On February 28, 2024, the Board of Directors of the Company approved, and the Company announced, a share repurchase program, pursuant to which the Company is authorized to repurchase up to $ 150 million of Quaker Chemical Corporation common stock (“2024 Share Repurchase Program”), which replaced a prior authorization and has no expiration date. The number of shares to be repurchased and the timing of such transactions will depend on a variety of factors, including market conditions. See Note 8, Equity , to the Consolidated Financial Statements for more information.
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Stock Performance Graph
The following graph compares the cumulative total return (assuming reinvestment of dividends) from December 31, 2019 to December 31, 2024 for (i) Quaker’s common stock, (ii) the S&P MidCap 400 Index (the “MidCap Index”), (iii) the S&P 400 Materials Group Index (the “Materials Group Index”) and (iv) S&P Composite 1500 Chemicals Index (the “Chemicals Index”), the new published industry index we have selected to use. The graph assumes the investment of $100 o n December 31, 2019 in each of Quaker’s common stock, the stocks comprising the MidCap Index, Materials Group Index and the Chemicals Index, respe ctively. We included the Chemicals Index this year because the Chemicals Index was also the peer group used to assess the 2024 performance stock unit’s total shareholder return relative to the performance of our peer group.
Company / Index 12/31/2019 12/31/2020 12/31/2021 12/31/2022 12/31/2023 12/31/2024
Quaker Chemical Corp. $ 100.00 $ 155.43 $ 142.48 $ 104.16 $ 134.50 $ 89.60
S&P MidCap 400 Index 100.00 113.66 141.80 123.28 143.54 163.54
S&P 400 Materials Group Index 100.00 110.65 146.30 142.31 165.83 161.74
S&P Composite 1500 Chemicals Index 100.00 118.22 148.89 131.59 146.19 144.62
Item 6. Reserved.
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