Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 195,625 Shares of Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lowered its position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,943,267 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 195,625 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 3.27% of Waters worth $720,913,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WAT. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its position in shares of Waters by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 3,587 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,331,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Waters by 34.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 159,995 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $57,579,000 after purchasing an additional 41,339 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Waters by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Waters by 13.2% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,578 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Waters by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 421,691 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $156,439,000 after buying an additional 27,801 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WAT has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Waters from $405.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Waters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Scotiabank raised shares of Waters from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $430.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Waters from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $460.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Waters from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $396.00 to $407.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $401.31.

Waters Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of WAT opened at $362.21 on Thursday. 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 $21.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day moving average of $384.62 and a 200 day moving average of $373.38. Waters Co. has a 1-year low of $279.24 and a 1-year high of $423.56.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 earnings per share 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%. On average, research analysts expect that Waters Co. will post 12.86 EPS for the current 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.