New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $6.87 Million Position in Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS)

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its holdings in Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 33,676 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 800 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.10% of Watts Water Technologies worth $6,867,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 57.3% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 225 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 329.1% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 80.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 278 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 45.0% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 108.4% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 323 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. 95.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Watts Water Technologies Stock Up 1.0%

WTS stock opened at $255.10 on Friday. Watts Water Technologies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $175.37 and a twelve month high of $255.29. The company has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $237.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.05. 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 (NYSE:WTS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $547.58 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Watts Water Technologies, Inc. will post 9.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Watts Water Technologies Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. This is an increase from Watts Water Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. Watts Water Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WTS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $275.00 price objective on Watts Water Technologies and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Northcoast Research lowered Watts Water Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Watts Water Technologies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $231.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Watts Water Technologies news, CFO Shashank Patel sold 8,000 shares of Watts Water Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 2,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $674,730. The trade was a 74.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Timothy P. Horne sold 7,000 shares of Watts Water Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.85, for a total value of $1,692,950.00. 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 over the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Watts Water Technologies 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.