Rockland Trust Co. Purchases New Shares in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Rockland Trust Co. acquired a new position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 633 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WAT. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Waters by 21.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 448,304 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $130,053,000 after purchasing an additional 77,951 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Waters by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,837,662 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $2,251,163,000 after buying an additional 64,525 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Waters by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 652,892 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $189,417,000 after buying an additional 51,853 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Waters in the 2nd quarter worth about $9,295,000. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Waters in the 1st quarter worth about $10,106,000. 94.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WAT. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Waters from $335.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Waters from $330.00 to $310.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays boosted 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. Leerink Partners raised Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $325.00 to $375.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Waters in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $380.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Waters has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $327.00.

Waters Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WAT traded down $1.89 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $352.51. 576,384 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 427,871. 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 one year low of $231.90 and a one year high of $367.21. The company has a market cap of $20.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.59, a P/E/G ratio of 6.16 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $338.30 and a 200 day moving average of $324.56.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $700.09 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.80 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Waters Co. will post 11.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waters Company Profile

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.