West Family Investments Inc. Invests $227,000 in Ferguson plc (NASDAQ:FERG)

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Ferguson plc (NASDAQ:FERG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ferguson by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,247,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,198,094,000 after purchasing an additional 196,489 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Ferguson by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,693,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $278,524,000 after buying an additional 99,758 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ferguson by 86.9% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,636,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,144,000 after acquiring an additional 760,800 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Ferguson by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 922,025 shares of the company’s stock worth $151,648,000 after acquiring an additional 22,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Ferguson by 41.0% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 891,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $146,631,000 after purchasing an additional 259,197 shares in the last quarter. 81.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James lowered Ferguson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ferguson from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $166.50.

Ferguson Price Performance

FERG stock traded up $3.88 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $217.17. 830,326 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,125,595. Ferguson plc has a 52 week low of $137.12 and a 52 week high of $224.86. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $212.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $190.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.04 billion, a PE ratio of 24.80, a P/E/G ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 1.27.

Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 5th. The company reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.82 by ($0.08). Ferguson had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 37.99%. The firm had revenue of $6.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ferguson plc will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ferguson Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. Ferguson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.74%.

Ferguson Company Profile

Ferguson plc distributes plumbing and heating products in the United States and Canada. It offers plumbing and heating solutions to customers in the residential, commercial, civil/infrastructure, and industrial end markets. The company also provides expertise, solutions, and products, including infrastructure, plumbing, appliances, fire, fabrication, and others, as well as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning products under the Ferguson brand name.