Brandes Investment Partners LP Has $1.05 Million Stock Position in Whirlpool Co. (NYSE:WHR)

Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool Co. (NYSE:WHR) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,178 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 907 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Whirlpool were worth $1,051,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 99.0% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 10,709 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,226,000 after buying an additional 5,328 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 54.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 636,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,917,000 after buying an additional 223,232 shares during the last quarter. Delta Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Whirlpool during the fourth quarter worth $343,000. First Dallas Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 99.4% during the fourth quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 8,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $930,000 after buying an additional 4,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 1.4% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 440,175 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,099,000 after buying an additional 6,049 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on WHR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Whirlpool from $125.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Whirlpool from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $106.00.

Whirlpool Stock Performance

Shares of WHR opened at $91.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.54 and a beta of 1.44. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. Whirlpool Co. has a 12 month low of $84.18 and a 12 month high of $135.49.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $4.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.31. Whirlpool had a negative net margin of 1.95% and a positive return on equity of 21.89%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Whirlpool Co. will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Whirlpool Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $1.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.69%. Whirlpool’s payout ratio is -119.45%.

Whirlpool Profile

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.