American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stock Position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 1.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 323,966 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after buying an additional 3,163 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.55% of Waters worth $93,989,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Foguth Wealth Management LLC. purchased a new position in Waters during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,773,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Waters during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $962,000. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH lifted its holdings in Waters by 2,134.3% during the first quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 5,921 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $2,038,000 after purchasing an additional 5,656 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Waters by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,837,662 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,251,163,000 after buying an additional 64,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Madison Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Waters by 27.1% in the fourth quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC now owns 187,483 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $61,725,000 after buying an additional 39,954 shares in the last quarter. 94.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Waters from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Waters in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $380.00 target price on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Waters from $330.00 to $310.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Waters to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Leerink Partners raised shares of Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $325.00 to $375.00 in a report on Thursday, August 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Waters has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.50.

Waters Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of WAT opened at $325.86 on Friday. Waters Co. has a twelve month low of $231.90 and a twelve month high of $367.21. The company has a market cap of $19.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.98, a P/E/G ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $325.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.71.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.55 by $0.08. Waters had a net margin of 20.71% and a return on equity of 56.81%. The business had revenue of $709.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $700.09 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Waters Co. will post 11.6 EPS for the current year.

About Waters

Waters Corporation 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.