StockNews.com Lowers Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

WHR has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Whirlpool from $85.00 to $79.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Whirlpool from $120.00 to $111.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TheStreet raised shares of Whirlpool from a d+ rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Loop Capital assumed coverage on shares of Whirlpool in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. They set a buy rating and a $140.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $113.40.

Whirlpool Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:WHR opened at $94.60 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $109.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $112.57. Whirlpool has a 12 month low of $91.90 and a 12 month high of $160.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. The stock has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.03 and a beta of 1.48.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.17. Whirlpool had a net margin of 2.07% and a return on equity of 35.16%. The firm had revenue of $4.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.42 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Whirlpool will post 13.3 EPS for the current year.

Whirlpool Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $1.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $7.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.40%. Whirlpool’s dividend payout ratio is currently 96.42%.

Institutional Trading of Whirlpool

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,536,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $873,919,000 after acquiring an additional 25,740 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 4,729,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,964,000 after acquiring an additional 26,630 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 59.7% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,473,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,804,000 after acquiring an additional 924,128 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 38.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,954,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $261,296,000 after acquiring an additional 541,219 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,425,552 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,589,000 after acquiring an additional 14,826 shares during the period. 90.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Whirlpool

Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in the North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers.