RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,191 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,184,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Waters by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,098,668 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,633,464,000 after buying an additional 19,456 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Waters by 106,144.4% in the 4th quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 3,087,461 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,145,386,000 after acquiring an additional 3,084,555 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Waters by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,654,002 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $984,582,000 after purchasing an additional 212,364 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Waters by 1.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 49,194 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Waters by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,451,445 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $537,053,000 after purchasing an additional 34,762 shares during the last quarter. 94.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on WAT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Waters from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Baird R W raised Waters from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Waters from $405.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays raised Waters from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $360.00 to $415.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Waters from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $460.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $401.31.

Waters Stock Down 3.6 %

WAT opened at $355.43 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $385.54 and a 200 day moving average of $373.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Waters Co. has a 12 month low of $279.24 and a 12 month high of $423.56. The company has a market cap 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.02 by $0.08. Waters had a return on equity of 46.31% and a net margin of 21.56%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Waters Co. will post 12.86 EPS 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.