Seeds Investor LLC Trims Position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Seeds Investor LLC trimmed its position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,041 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. Seeds Investor LLC’s holdings in Waters were worth $386,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WAT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Waters by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,098,668 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,633,464,000 after acquiring an additional 19,456 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of Waters by 106,144.4% in the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 3,087,461 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,145,386,000 after purchasing an additional 3,084,555 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of Waters by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,654,002 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $984,582,000 after buying an additional 212,364 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Waters by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,451,445 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $537,053,000 after buying an additional 34,762 shares during the period. Finally, AKO Capital LLP grew its position in Waters by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. AKO Capital LLP now owns 815,379 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $302,489,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares in the last quarter. 94.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird raised Waters from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $396.00 to $407.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Waters from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Waters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Baird R W raised shares of Waters from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Waters from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $397.25.

Waters Price Performance

WAT opened at $325.44 on Monday. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $368.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $372.48. The firm has a market cap of $19.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.39, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.04. Waters Co. has a 1 year low of $279.24 and a 1 year high of $423.56.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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, analysts predict that Waters Co. will post 12.86 earnings per share 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.