Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,830,000 shares, an increase of 7.6% from the August 15th total of 1,700,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 875,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowserve

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 185.9% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 569 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Flowserve in the 2nd quarter worth $34,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Flowserve in the 1st quarter worth $36,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Flowserve by 166.0% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 987 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Flowserve by 122.4% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FLS has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowserve from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Flowserve from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Flowserve presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.11.

Flowserve Stock Performance

Flowserve stock opened at $46.69 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $47.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $47.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market cap of $6.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.39. Flowserve has a fifty-two week low of $35.31 and a fifty-two week high of $52.09.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Flowserve had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Flowserve will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.46%.

About Flowserve

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.