Arizona State Retirement System Has $6.40 Million Stake in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,241 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after buying an additional 246 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Waters were worth $6,396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WAT. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Waters by 70.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 656,019 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $236,095,000 after buying an additional 271,804 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Waters during the 4th quarter valued at $42,114,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Waters by 37.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 305,661 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $110,005,000 after purchasing an additional 82,865 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in shares of Waters by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 714,155 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $264,937,000 after purchasing an additional 68,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Applied Finance Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waters by 3,627.0% during the 3rd quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC now owns 68,987 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $24,828,000 after purchasing an additional 67,136 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WAT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Waters from $415.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Waters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $430.00 to $450.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays upgraded shares of Waters from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $360.00 to $415.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Waters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Waters from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $391.07.

Waters Price Performance

Shares of Waters stock opened at $392.34 on Friday. Waters Co. has a twelve month low of $279.24 and a twelve month high of $423.56. The firm has a market cap of $23.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $390.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $368.33. 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 (NYSE:WAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.02 by $0.08. Waters had a net margin of 21.56% and a return on equity of 46.31%. As a group, research analysts expect that Waters Co. will post 12.86 EPS for the current fiscal 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.