IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd Invests $897,000 in Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS)

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd bought a new position in shares of Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 15,596 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $897,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLS. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 25,735 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,330,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Flowserve by 71.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 58,587 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,028,000 after purchasing an additional 24,460 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in Flowserve by 89.5% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 3,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $186,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Flowserve by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 893,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $46,170,000 after buying an additional 120,396 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 1,671.2% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 42,509 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,197,000 after buying an additional 40,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on FLS shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Flowserve from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Flowserve from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Flowserve from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird raised Flowserve from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $71.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Flowserve from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.60.

Flowserve Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of Flowserve stock opened at $50.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.38. Flowserve Co. has a 52-week low of $43.66 and a 52-week high of $65.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.07). Flowserve had a net margin of 6.20% and a return on equity of 17.08%. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Flowserve Co. will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Flowserve’s payout ratio is 39.25%.

Flowserve Company 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.