Quaker Houghton: Full Margin Recapture by Year-End '26

Research evidence excerpt

Quaker Houghton: Full Margin Recapture by Year-End '26

Deutsche Bank

Research

Rating Company Date

Buy Quaker Houghton 17 May 2026

North America Reuters Bloomberg Rating Buy

United States KWR.N KWR US Price target (USD) 165.00 Price at 15 May 26 137.99

52-week range 180.57 – 104.10

Industrials

Chemicals / Specialty Valuation & Risks

Full Margin Recapture by Year-End '26

David Begleiter

10th straight quarter of market share gains. Valuation fair. Reiterate Buy Research Analyst

+1-212-250-5473 We are maintaining our Buy rating on Quaker following its Q1 release as i) EBITDA

beat by 2%, ii) Q2 EBITDA guidance was ~11% below consensus, iii) '26 EBITDA Emily Fusco

guidance was reduced and iv) a new cost savings program was announced. Research Associate

+1-212-250-5162

In the quarter, the earnings beat was driven by better-than-expected volume

growth of 3% (DBe: +1), and an improvement versus a 1% decline in Q4. Driving

this growth were new business wins of 4% with strength across all segments, led

by Asia-Pacific. The quarter marked Quaker’s 10th straight quarter of market Key changes

share gains. These new business wins, which was Quaker's 4th straight quarter at Price target (USD) 170 165 -3%

or above the high end of its targeted annual range of 2-4%, helped offset Source: Deutsche Bank

continued soft end market conditions as the markets Quaker serves were down

1% in the quarter.

In Q2, Quaker is raising selling prices to offset higher raw material and shipping

costs stemming from the Middle East conflict. However, due to typical pricing

lags, particularly with index-based contracts (~25% of Quaker’s business), versus

rising costs, Quaker expects gross margins to compress 200-300 bps QoQ. As a

result, Quaker guided Q2 EBITDA to be similar to Q1 EBITDA (of $73MM), or