Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Raises Position in Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) by 103.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 20,806 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,557 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Flowserve were worth $1,197,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Flowserve by 1.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,886,111 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $201,685,000 after acquiring an additional 37,132 shares in the last quarter. Vestcor Inc bought a new stake in shares of Flowserve in the 3rd quarter valued at about $714,000. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Flowserve by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 244,139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,619,000 after acquiring an additional 29,979 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Flowserve during the 4th quarter worth approximately $800,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Flowserve by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,807 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FLS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised Flowserve from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $71.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Flowserve from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Flowserve from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Flowserve from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Flowserve from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Flowserve has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.60.

Flowserve Stock Performance

Flowserve stock opened at $48.72 on Monday. Flowserve Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.66 and a fifty-two week high of $65.08. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.97. The stock has a market cap of $6.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.43.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. Flowserve had a net margin of 6.20% and a return on equity of 17.08%. As a group, analysts expect that Flowserve Co. will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.25%.

Flowserve Company Profile

Flowserve Corporation designs, manufactures, distributes, and services industrial flow management equipment in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through Flowserve Pump Division (FPD) and Flow Control Division (FCD) segments. The FPD segment offers custom and pre-configured pumps and pump systems, mechanical seals, auxiliary systems, replacement parts, upgrades, and related aftermarket services; and equipment services, including installation and commissioning services, seal systems spare parts, repairs, advanced diagnostics, re-rate and upgrade solutions, retrofit programs, and machining and asset management solutions, as well as manufactures a gas-lubricated mechanical seal for use in high-speed compressors for gas pipelines and in the oil and gas production and process markets.