Blair William & Co. IL Increases Position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,281 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Waters were worth $1,588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WAT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Waters by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,098,668 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $2,633,464,000 after buying an additional 19,456 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its position in Waters by 106,144.4% during the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 3,087,461 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,145,386,000 after acquiring an additional 3,084,555 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Waters by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,577,733 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $927,700,000 after acquiring an additional 49,194 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Waters by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,416,683 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $508,123,000 after purchasing an additional 16,703 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Waters by 0.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 885,593 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $318,717,000 after purchasing an additional 6,256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank raised Waters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $430.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays raised Waters from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $360.00 to $415.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Waters from $415.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $430.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Waters from $405.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $401.31.

Waters Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WAT opened at $355.43 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $385.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $373.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.94. Waters Co. has a 1 year low of $279.24 and a 1 year high of $423.56. The company has a market capitalization of $21.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.00.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.02 by $0.08. Waters had a return on equity of 46.31% and a net margin of 21.56%. On average, research analysts predict that Waters Co. will post 12.86 earnings per share for the current year.

About Waters

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.