Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on FLS. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Flowserve from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $69.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Flowserve from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Flowserve from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Flowserve from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.40.

Flowserve Price Performance

FLS opened at $57.78 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $58.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Flowserve has a 1 year low of $39.21 and a 1 year high of $62.32.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The industrial products company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.05). Flowserve had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 5.90%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Flowserve will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio is 41.58%.

Institutional Trading of Flowserve

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 155.2% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,624,919 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $126,259,000 after buying an additional 1,596,429 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Flowserve by 31.8% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,748,885 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $132,221,000 after acquiring an additional 663,631 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Flowserve by 197.6% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 913,268 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $47,207,000 after purchasing an additional 606,416 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Flowserve in the 2nd quarter valued at $23,911,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Flowserve by 34.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,664,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $86,055,000 after purchasing an additional 422,141 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.93% of the company’s stock.

About Flowserve

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.