Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) Receives Average Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and eight have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $298.00.

WAT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered shares of Waters from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, November 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Waters in a research note on Thursday, September 28th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Waters from $305.00 to $290.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 8th. TheStreet lowered shares of Waters from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Waters from $305.00 to $285.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 8th.

Waters Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:WAT opened at $261.04 on Tuesday. Waters has a one year low of $231.90 and a one year high of $353.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 2.19. The firm has a market cap of $15.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.71, a P/E/G ratio of 5.83 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $260.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $267.56.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 7th. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.56 by $0.28. Waters had a net margin of 21.80% and a return on equity of 102.22%. The business had revenue of $711.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Waters will post 11.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Waters

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new stake in Waters during the first quarter valued at $25,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Waters during the second quarter valued at $26,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Waters during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Institutional & Family Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Waters during the second quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, West Tower Group LLC acquired a new stake in Waters during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.01% of the company’s stock.

About Waters

Waters Corporation, a specialty measurement company, provides analytical workflow solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It operates through two segments, Waters and TA. The company designs, manufactures, sells, and services high and ultra-performance liquid chromatography, as well as mass spectrometry (MS) technology systems and support products, including chromatography columns, other consumable products, and post-warranty service plans.