Versor Investments LP Invests $984,000 in Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO)

Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 2,000 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $984,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WSO. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Watsco by 48,984.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 233,643 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $114,924,000 after buying an additional 233,167 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Watsco in the 1st quarter valued at $90,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Watsco by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,411,894 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,473,836,000 after acquiring an additional 146,305 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Watsco by 225.8% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 38,830 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $16,610,000 after acquiring an additional 26,911 shares during the period. Finally, Interval Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Watsco in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,740,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WSO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Watsco from $420.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Watsco from $550.00 to $540.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th.

Watsco Stock Up 1.6 %

Watsco stock opened at $536.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.68 billion, a PE ratio of 41.49 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $486.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $480.35. Watsco, Inc. has a 52 week low of $372.63 and a 52 week high of $539.10.

Watsco (NYSE:WSO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The construction company reported $4.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.73 by ($0.51). The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Watsco had a return on equity of 17.77% and a net margin of 6.99%. The company’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Watsco, Inc. will post 13.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Watsco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 16th were given a dividend of $2.70 per share. This represents a $10.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 16th. Watsco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.46%.

About Watsco

Watsco, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of air conditioning, heating, refrigeration equipment, and related parts and supplies in the United States and internationally. The company distributes equipment, including residential ducted and ductless air conditioners, such as gas, electric, and oil furnaces; commercial air conditioning and heating equipment systems; and other specialized equipment.