Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,830,000 shares, an increase of 7.6% from the August 15th total of 1,700,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 875,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Flowserve

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLS. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Flowserve by 155.2% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,624,919 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $126,259,000 after buying an additional 1,596,429 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Flowserve during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,261,000. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Flowserve in the first quarter worth approximately $41,413,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Flowserve in the second quarter worth approximately $37,100,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowserve by 31.8% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,748,885 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $132,221,000 after purchasing an additional 663,631 shares during the period. 93.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FLS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Flowserve from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Flowserve from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Flowserve from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Flowserve from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Flowserve from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Flowserve presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.11.

Flowserve Stock Up 0.1 %

FLS opened at $46.69 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $47.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.38. Flowserve has a twelve month low of $35.31 and a twelve month high of $52.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.38, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.39.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Flowserve had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Flowserve will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowserve Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.46%.

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.