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 report released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Flowserve from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Flowserve from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $71.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Flowserve from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Flowserve from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Flowserve from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.60.

Flowserve Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of FLS stock opened at $51.36 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.43. Flowserve has a one year low of $43.66 and a one year high of $65.08. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $57.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. Flowserve had a net margin of 6.20% and a return on equity of 17.08%. Sell-side analysts expect that Flowserve will post 3.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.25%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FLS. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Flowserve by 46.6% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 184,864 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,556,000 after acquiring an additional 58,769 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Flowserve by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,432 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc raised its stake in shares of Flowserve by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 29,311 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,515,000 after acquiring an additional 1,314 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Flowserve by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 25,735 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,330,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake 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 worth $86,055,000 after acquiring an additional 422,141 shares in the last quarter. 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.