John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Decreases Stake in Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. reduced its position in Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 161,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,050 shares during the period. Flowserve accounts for 1.1% of John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Flowserve were worth $6,661,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 0.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,260,754 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $527,380,000 after buying an additional 71,320 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 0.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,793,498 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $387,485,000 after buying an additional 88,950 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,913 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $403,065,000 after buying an additional 246,636 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 2.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,770,040 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $128,931,000 after buying an additional 86,815 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 17.8% in the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 2,021,081 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,083,000 after buying an additional 304,769 shares in the last quarter. 93.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Flowserve Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE FLS traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $45.68. 350,359 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,077,496. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The company has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.93. Flowserve Co. has a 52 week low of $32.05 and a 52 week high of $48.31.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Flowserve had a return on equity of 14.44% and a net margin of 4.32%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Flowserve Co. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowserve Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Flowserve’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FLS. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Flowserve from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Mizuho upped their price objective on Flowserve from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on Flowserve from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Flowserve from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Flowserve from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.25.

Flowserve 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.