Tredje AP fonden Sells 4,606 Shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Tredje AP fonden reduced its stake in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 50.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,607 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 4,606 shares during the quarter. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in Waters were worth $1,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 3,084,555 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Waters by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,577,733 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $927,700,000 after purchasing an additional 49,194 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Waters by 1.2% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Waters by 0.7% in the 3rd 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. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Waters by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 728,534 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $270,272,000 after purchasing an additional 72,515 shares in the last quarter. 94.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on WAT. StockNews.com cut Waters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank raised Waters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $430.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Waters from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Waters from $405.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $391.07.

Waters Trading Up 3.8 %

NYSE:WAT opened at $378.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.00. Waters Co. has a one year low of $279.24 and a one year high of $423.56. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $391.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $370.04.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Waters Co. will post 12.86 EPS for the current 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.