Jefferies Financial Group Has Lowered Expectations for Waters (NYSE:WAT) Stock Price

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group has lowered its price target for Waters (NYSE:WAT) from $435 to $385, maintaining a "buy" rating, indicating a potential upside of 34.63% from the stock's previous close.
• Other analysts have also reduced their price targets, with Barclays setting a new target of $350 and Wells Fargo lowering theirs to $330, suggesting a consensus rating of "Hold" across multiple firms.
• Waters reported a quarterly revenue of $771.33 million, exceeding analysts' expectations, while also showing an earnings per share of $2.95, slightly above the estimated $2.93.

Waters (NYSE:WAT - Get Free Report) had its price target decreased by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $435.00 to $385.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the medical instruments supplier's stock. Jefferies Financial Group's target price suggests a potential upside of 34.63% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Waters from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Waters from $374.00 to $352.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Waters from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $420.00 to $330.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Bank of America upped their target price on Waters from $370.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Waters in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $380.40.

Waters Price Performance

WAT stock traded down $4.34 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $285.97. 1,285,282 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 608,219. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $332.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $354.43. Waters has a one year low of $279.19 and a one year high of $423.56. The company has a market cap of $17.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Waters (NYSE:WAT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.02. Waters had a return on equity of 41.70% and a net margin of 22.02%. The business had revenue of $771.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $745.96 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.63 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Waters will post 12.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Waters

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Waters by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,272,252 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $2,680,334,000 after buying an additional 173,584 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Waters by 15.7% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,070,671 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $1,131,757,000 after buying an additional 416,669 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Waters by 6.3% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,066,482 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $761,643,000 after buying an additional 123,215 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Waters by 14.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,112,128 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock valued at $409,897,000 after purchasing an additional 136,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Waters by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 889,306 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock valued at $329,911,000 after purchasing an additional 3,713 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.01% of the company's stock.

Waters Company 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.

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