Flowserve reports earnings April 28 with short interest up sharply and options traders showing unusual bullishness. The industrial machinery maker faces the market with mixed technical signals and a narrowing analyst view.
Short interest hit 3.50% of float as of April 23, up 41% over the past month. Daily estimate data shows 4.45 million shares short. The week-over-week jump was 10.9%, with utilisation climbing to 5.71% from much lower levels in early April. Cost to borrow sits at 0.42%, down 9% over the past week but up 15% over the month. The official FINRA figure as of April 15 showed 4.78 million shares short with 2.49 days to cover. Short sellers have built positions aggressively into the print.
Put/call ratio dropped to 0.45, well below the 20-day mean of 0.59. The z-score of -1.06 signals call-heavy positioning. PCR sits near the bottom of its 52-week range of 0.07 to 1.39. Options traders are leaning bullish heading into the event.
Analysts maintain an average price target of $96.10, implying 15% upside from the current $83.22. Stifel's Nathan Jones raised his target to $102 on April 14, maintaining a Buy rating. Citigroup's Andrew Kaplowitz lowered his target slightly to $97 from $98 on April 13 but kept a Buy. Jefferies cut its target to $90 from $100 on March 31. Earlier in February, multiple firms lifted targets after the prior print, with Citigroup moving to $98, RBC to $96, and Mizuho to $91. Benzinga's bull case notes adjusted operating margins expanded 370 basis points year-over-year to 14.8%, with strong demand in North America and the Middle East. The bear case cites downward revisions to organic sales growth guidance, now expected at 1–3%, and a 17% valuation discount to peers.
P/E stands at 19.13, up 1.16 points over the past month. P/B is 3.82, up 0.19 over 30 days. EV/EBITDA sits at 12.63, down 0.14 over the month. The dividend score ranks in the 76th percentile. EPS surprise ranks in the 9th percentile. Analyst recommendation differential ranks at the 50th percentile.
Insiders sold a net $4.4 million over the past 90 days, with CEO Robert Rowe offloading shares at $88.52 in early March. BlackRock holds 9.1% of shares, up 64,112 last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors added 299,346 shares, now holding 2.2%. BNY Asset Management increased its stake by 624,858 shares to 1.8%.
FLS last reported on February 20, 2026. The stock closed at $83.22 on April 24, up 1.6% on the day but down 0.7% over the past week. The one-month gain is 10.4%.
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