Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Baird R W

Baird R W upgraded shares of Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Flowserve from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Flowserve from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Flowserve from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Flowserve from $73.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.60.

Flowserve Stock Up 2.8 %

FLS stock opened at $50.38 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. Flowserve has a fifty-two week low of $43.66 and a fifty-two week high of $65.08. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.31. The stock has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a PE ratio of 23.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.43.

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

Flowserve Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Flowserve’s payout ratio is 39.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowserve

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FLS. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,886,111 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $201,685,000 after purchasing an additional 37,132 shares during the last quarter. Vestcor Inc bought a new stake in shares of Flowserve in the 3rd quarter worth about $714,000. Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 244,139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,619,000 after purchasing an additional 29,979 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC grew its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 130.3% in the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 109,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,638,000 after purchasing an additional 61,710 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York Life Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowserve in the 4th quarter worth about $800,000. 93.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.