Balchem vs Quaker Chemical
Add, change or remove companies; up to four.
The short version
- Quaker Chemical is the larger business, with $1.9B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $1.0B for Balchem, about 1.8 times as much.
- Balchem grew revenue faster (8.8%, against 2.7%).
- Balchem kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (20.2% operating margin, against 2.8%).
- Balchem turned more of its sales into free cash flow (16.7% FCF margin, against 4.3%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Balchem’s earnings: a P/E of 33.3x against 27.8x for Quaker Chemical.
| Latest fiscal year | BCPC · FY25 | KWR · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $5.7B | $2.7B |
| Revenue | $1.0B | $1.9B |
| Free cash flow | $173M | $80.6M |
| Net income | $155M | −$2.5M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 8.8% | 2.7% |
| 5-year growth | 8.1% | 5.9% |
| Share count change | −0.4% | −2.2% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 35.7% | 36.0% |
| Operating margin | 20.2% | 2.8% |
| Net margin | 14.9% | −0.1% |
| FCF margin | 16.7% | 4.3% |
| Return on capital | — | 1.3% |
| Return on equity | 12.9% | −0.2% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | — | $726M |
| Net debt / EBITDA | — | 6.1x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $136M | $75.9M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 33.3x | 27.8x |
| Piotroski F-score | — | 5 |
Revenue
FY16
BCPC $553M
KWR $747M
FY17
BCPC $595M
KWR $820M
FY18
BCPC $644M
KWR $868M
FY19
BCPC $644M
KWR $1.1B
FY20
BCPC $704M
KWR $1.4B
FY21
BCPC $799M
KWR $1.8B
FY22
BCPC $942M
KWR $1.9B
FY23
BCPC $922M
KWR $2.0B
FY24
BCPC $954M
KWR $1.8B
FY25
BCPC $1.0B
KWR $1.9B
BCPC
KWR
Operating margin
FY16
BCPC 16.4%
KWR 11.4%
FY17
BCPC 16.3%
KWR 7.7%
FY18
BCPC 16.6%
KWR 10.1%
FY19
BCPC 15.9%
KWR 4.1%
FY20
BCPC 15.8%
KWR 4.2%
FY21
BCPC 16.0%
KWR 8.5%
FY22
BCPC 15.4%
KWR 2.7%
FY23
BCPC 17.3%
KWR 11.0%
FY24
BCPC 19.2%
KWR 10.6%
FY25
BCPC 20.2%
KWR 2.8%
BCPC
KWR
Free cash flow
FY16
BCPC $84.6M
KWR $63.8M
FY17
BCPC $83.1M
KWR $53.9M
FY18
BCPC $99.5M
KWR $65.9M
FY19
BCPC $98.7M
KWR $66.8M
FY20
BCPC $118M
KWR $160M
FY21
BCPC $124M
KWR $27.5M
FY22
BCPC $89.5M
KWR $13.3M
FY23
BCPC $146M
KWR $240M
FY24
BCPC $146M
KWR $163M
FY25
BCPC $173M
KWR $80.6M
BCPC
KWR
Return on capital
FY16
BCPC 8.9%
KWR 16.0%
FY17
BCPC 14.3%
KWR 8.1%
FY18
BCPC 12.1%
KWR 16.4%
FY19
BCPC —
KWR 3.6%
FY20
BCPC —
KWR 2.9%
FY21
BCPC —
KWR 5.5%
FY22
BCPC —
KWR 1.3%
FY23
BCPC —
KWR 6.8%
FY24
BCPC —
KWR 6.9%
FY25
BCPC —
KWR 1.3%
BCPC
KWR
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.