Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Buys Shares of 15,077 Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Flowserve Co. (NYSE:FLS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 15,077 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $621,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLS. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Flowserve by 153.0% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Flowserve by 92.6% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 15,667 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $623,000 after acquiring an additional 7,533 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of Flowserve by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 431,223 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $17,150,000 after acquiring an additional 38,242 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Flowserve during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,053,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Flowserve by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,141,486 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,397,000 after acquiring an additional 29,810 shares during the last quarter. 93.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on FLS. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Flowserve from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Flowserve from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.25.

Flowserve Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:FLS opened at $47.24 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Flowserve Co. has a 52-week low of $32.49 and a 52-week high of $48.31. The company has a 50 day moving average of $45.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.36. The company has a market capitalization of $6.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.46.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. Flowserve had a net margin of 4.32% and a return on equity of 14.44%. The company had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. Flowserve’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Flowserve Co. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowserve Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Flowserve’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. Flowserve’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.57%.

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.