Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. Buys 150 Shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 11.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,510 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc.’s holdings in Waters were worth $560,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WAT. Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new stake in shares of Waters during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Waters by 235.7% in the 4th quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 94 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Waters in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Waters during the 4th quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Waters by 63.2% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 186 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WAT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Cfra set a $389.00 price target on shares of Waters in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Waters from $332.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Waters from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Waters from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $430.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $384.71.

Waters Price Performance

Shares of WAT stock opened at $411.53 on Tuesday. Waters Co. has a 1 year low of $279.24 and a 1 year high of $423.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $387.62 and its 200-day moving average is $359.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.27, a PEG ratio of 7.45 and a beta of 1.01.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $740.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $712.99 million. Waters had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 21.43%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.84 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Waters Co. will post 11.79 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.