Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $68.60.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FLS. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Flowserve from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Flowserve from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Flowserve from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $55.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Flowserve from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Flowserve from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th.

Flowserve Price Performance

FLS stock opened at $48.44 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $6.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.34. Flowserve has a 1 year low of $43.00 and a 1 year high of $65.08.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.07). Flowserve had a return on equity of 17.08% and a net margin of 6.20%. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Flowserve will post 3.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. Flowserve’s payout ratio is currently 39.25%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Flowserve by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,477,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $775,209,000 after purchasing an additional 101,668 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased its stake in shares of Flowserve by 71.7% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,255,059 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $302,271,000 after acquiring an additional 2,193,904 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,886,111 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $201,685,000 after acquiring an additional 37,132 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,925,459 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $168,272,000 after acquiring an additional 258,361 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Flowserve by 1.7% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,603,528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $134,577,000 after acquiring an additional 44,039 shares in the last quarter. 93.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Flowserve Company Profile

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.