Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS) Stock Position Lifted by State of Alaska Department of Revenue

State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in shares of Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,207 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 85 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Watts Water Technologies were worth $653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Watts Water Technologies by 9.0% during the first quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC now owns 183,479 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,415,000 after buying an additional 15,150 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Watts Water Technologies by 13.9% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,869 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $585,000 after buying an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in Watts Water Technologies by 1.4% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,854 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,621,000 after buying an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Watts Water Technologies by 124.5% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,273 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,950,000 after buying an additional 13,460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Watts Water Technologies by 80.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 278 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Northcoast Research cut Watts Water Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $275.00 target price on Watts Water Technologies and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Watts Water Technologies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $231.20.

Watts Water Technologies Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE:WTS opened at $246.41 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Watts Water Technologies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $175.37 and a 1-year high of $249.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $232.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $215.78.

Watts Water Technologies (NYSE:WTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.25. Watts Water Technologies had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 13.07%. The business had revenue of $558.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.58 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. Watts Water Technologies’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Watts Water Technologies, Inc. will post 9.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Watts Water Technologies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from Watts Water Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Watts Water Technologies’s payout ratio is 23.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Watts Water Technologies

In other Watts Water Technologies news, CFO Shashank Patel sold 8,000 shares of Watts Water Technologies stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $1,960,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 2,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $674,730. The trade was a 74.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Monica Barry sold 768 shares of Watts Water Technologies stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.40, for a total value of $188,467.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,236 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,530,314.40. This trade represents a 10.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,768 shares of company stock valued at $3,841,417 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Watts Water Technologies Company Profile

Watts Water Technologies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, supplies products and solutions that manage and conserve the flow of fluids and energy into, through, and out of buildings in the commercial, industrial, and residential markets in the Americas, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.