Barrett & Company Inc. Acquires New Position in Watsco, Inc. $WSO

Barrett & Company Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 200 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $88,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Watsco during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Manitou Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Watsco during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Watsco during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. TCTC Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Watsco by 115.4% during the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 56 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, City Holding Co. bought a new stake in shares of Watsco in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Institutional investors own 89.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WSO shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Watsco in a report on Saturday, September 27th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Watsco from $450.00 to $425.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $505.00 price target on shares of Watsco in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $480.00.

Watsco Stock Up 1.1%

NYSE WSO opened at $415.70 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.86 billion, a PE ratio of 31.88 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $410.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $449.28. Watsco, Inc. has a 52 week low of $378.35 and a 52 week high of $571.41.

Watsco (NYSE:WSO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The construction company reported $4.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.84 by ($0.32). Watsco had a net margin of 7.08% and a return on equity of 16.96%. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.49 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Watsco, Inc. will post 14.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Watsco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 16th will be issued a dividend of $3.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 16th. This represents a $12.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Watsco’s payout ratio is 92.02%.

Watsco Profile

Watsco, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of air conditioning, heating, refrigeration equipment, and related parts and supplies in the United States and internationally. The company distributes equipment, including residential ducted and ductless air conditioners, such as gas, electric, and oil furnaces; commercial air conditioning and heating equipment systems; and other specialized equipment.