Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) Downgraded by StockNews.com

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Friday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Whirlpool from $85.00 to $79.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Whirlpool from $120.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Loop Capital initiated coverage on shares of Whirlpool in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $140.00 price target for the company. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Whirlpool from a “d+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Whirlpool has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.40.

Whirlpool Price Performance

WHR traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $94.60. The company had a trading volume of 2,516,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,372,095. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $5.17 billion, a PE ratio of 13.03 and a beta of 1.48. Whirlpool has a twelve month low of $91.90 and a twelve month high of $160.62. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.79.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $4.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.42 billion. Whirlpool had a net margin of 2.07% and a return on equity of 36.24%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Whirlpool will post 12.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Whirlpool by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,536,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $873,919,000 after buying an additional 25,740 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in Whirlpool by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 4,729,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $575,964,000 after buying an additional 26,630 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Whirlpool by 59.7% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,473,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,804,000 after buying an additional 924,128 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Whirlpool by 38.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,954,344 shares of the company’s stock valued at $261,296,000 after buying an additional 541,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Whirlpool by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,425,552 shares of the company’s stock valued at $173,589,000 after buying an additional 14,826 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.78% of the company’s stock.

About Whirlpool

Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in the North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers.