Quest Partners LLC Raises Holdings in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 32,633.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 982 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after purchasing an additional 979 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Waters were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Foguth Wealth Management LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Waters during the first quarter valued at about $2,773,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Waters during the fourth quarter valued at about $962,000. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH grew its position in Waters by 2,134.3% in the first quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 5,921 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,038,000 after acquiring an additional 5,656 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 64,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Madison Asset Management LLC grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 39,954 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on WAT. Leerink Partners upgraded Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $325.00 to $375.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Waters from $320.00 to $300.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Waters from $330.00 to $310.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Waters in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Waters from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $318.50.

Waters Stock Performance

Waters stock opened at $325.86 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $325.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $324.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 2.10. Waters Co. has a fifty-two week low of $231.90 and a fifty-two week high of $367.21. The company has a market capitalization of $19.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.98, a P/E/G ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 0.95.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last posted its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $709.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $700.09 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Waters Co. will post 11.6 earnings per share 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.