Jefferies Financial Group Initiates Coverage on Flowserve (NYSE:FLS)

Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Flowserve (NYSE:FLS - Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $65.00 price objective on the industrial products company's stock.

FLS has been the topic of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Flowserve from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Mizuho increased their target price on Flowserve from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Flowserve from $46.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowserve from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Flowserve from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Flowserve currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $58.50.

Flowserve Price Performance

Shares of Flowserve stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Friday, hitting $54.50. 663,989 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,073,289. Flowserve has a twelve month low of $35.31 and a twelve month high of $55.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The company has a market cap of $7.18 billion, a PE ratio of 30.79, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.39. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $49.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.63.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.13 billion. Flowserve had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 5.67%. Flowserve's quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. Analysts forecast that Flowserve will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowserve Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Flowserve's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.46%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Flowserve

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Flowserve by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,405,458 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $552,573,000 after purchasing an additional 144,704 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Flowserve by 31.8% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,748,885 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $132,221,000 after buying an additional 663,631 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Flowserve by 4.8% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,678,601 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $128,841,000 after acquiring an additional 121,873 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Flowserve by 155.2% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,624,919 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $126,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,429 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Flowserve by 3.4% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,559,489 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $123,112,000 after acquiring an additional 83,868 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.93% of the company's stock.

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.