Erste Asset Management GmbH Purchases 910,750 Shares of Flowserve Corporation $FLS

Key Points

• Erste Asset Management GmbH significantly increased its stake in Flowserve Corporation by 978.8%, owning over 1 million shares valued at approximately $49 million.
• Flowserve's stock received several positive ratings from analysts, with price targets ranging from $60 to $66, indicating a favorable outlook for the company.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with a yield of 1.6%, scheduled for payment on October 10th.

Erste Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS - Free Report) by 978.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,003,800 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 910,750 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH owned 0.77% of Flowserve worth $49,025,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 50.4% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 163,402 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $7,915,000 after buying an additional 54,771 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Flowserve in the first quarter worth about $15,004,000. Pinnacle Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Flowserve in the first quarter worth about $674,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 5.4% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,856,358 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $237,185,000 after buying an additional 248,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its position in shares of Flowserve by 47.2% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,089 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. 93.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on FLS. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Flowserve from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Flowserve from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup upped their price objective on Flowserve from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Flowserve from $71.00 to $70.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Flowserve from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $65.78.

Insider Activity at Flowserve

In other news, insider Kirk Wilson sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.22, for a total transaction of $532,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 37,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,979,571.12. This represents a 21.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company's stock.

Flowserve Trading Up 2.8%

FLS stock traded up $1.4470 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $53.4270. 1,129,858 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,587,389. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.60 and a 200-day moving average of $50.65. Flowserve Corporation has a 52-week low of $37.34 and a 52-week high of $65.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.10.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.22 billion. Flowserve had a return on equity of 18.25% and a net margin of 6.28%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Flowserve Corporation will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 26th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Flowserve's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.01%.

Flowserve 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.