Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes $42.11 Million Position in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Waters Co. (NYSE:WAT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 113,520 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $42,114,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WAT. Advisory Alpha LLC increased its position in Waters by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,065 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its position in Waters by 2.4% in the third quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 1,198 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Waters by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 966 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $358,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in Waters by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 9,610 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $3,565,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Waters by 3.8% in the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 851 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. 94.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on WAT. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Waters from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Waters from $332.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Waters from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Waters from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Waters from $430.00 to $410.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $390.40.

Waters Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:WAT opened at $377.22 on Friday. Waters Co. has a fifty-two week low of $279.24 and a fifty-two week high of $423.56. 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 has a market capitalization of $22.40 billion, a PE ratio of 35.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $390.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $367.30.

Waters (NYSE:WAT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $4.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.02 by $0.08. Waters had a return on equity of 46.31% and a net margin of 21.56%. Sell-side analysts expect that Waters Co. will post 12.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waters Profile

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.