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How to buy Watsco stock
Own Watsco stock in just a few minutes.
Watsco, Inc is an industrial distribution business based in the US. Watsco shares (WSO) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Watsco employs 5,800 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$5.1 billion.
How to buy shares in Watsco
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Watsco. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: WSO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Watsco reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Watsco, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Watsco. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
Watsco share price
Use our graph to track the performance of WSO stocks over time.Watsco shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-04-09.
| 52-week range | USD$140.676 - USD$273.99 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$251.5644 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$238.543 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$244 |
| PE ratio | 38.7175 |
| Dividend yield | USD$6.925 (2.56%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$7.01 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy Watsco stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Is Watsco under- or over-valued?
Valuing Watsco stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Watsco's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Watsco's P/E ratio
Watsco's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 39x. In other words, Watsco shares trade at around 39x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
Watsco's PEG ratio
Watsco's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.87. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Watsco's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Watsco's EBITDA
Watsco's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$416.2 million.
The EBITDA is a measure of a Watsco's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
Watsco financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$5.1 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 7.72% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$1.2 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 9.68% |
| Return on equity TTM | 18.5% |
| Profit margin | 5.33% |
| Book value | $42.251 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$10.4 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Watsco shares
There are currently 1.7 million Watsco shares held short by investors – that's known as Watsco's "short interest". This figure is 3.1% down from 1.7 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Watsco shares can be evaluated.
Watsco's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Watsco's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Watsco shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Watsco shares traded daily (recently around 225734.22459893). Watsco's SIR currently stands at 7.48. In other words for every 100,000 Watsco shares traded daily on the market, roughly 7480 shares are currently held short.
However Watsco's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Watsco shares, or, against the total number of tradable Watsco shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Watsco's short interest could be expressed as 0.04% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Watsco shares in existence, roughly 40 shares are currently held short) or 0.0585% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Watsco shares, roughly 59 shares are currently held short).
A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Watsco.
Find out more about how you can short Watsco stock.
Watsco share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 1.06% of net profits
Recently Watsco has paid out, on average, around 1.06% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.87% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Watsco shareholders could enjoy a 2.87% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Watsco's case, that would currently equate to about $6.925 per share.
While Watsco's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Watsco is investing more in its future growth.
Watsco's most recent dividend payout was on 29 April 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 13 April 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Watsco's shares ever split?
Watsco's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 16 August 1998. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Watsco shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Watsco shares which in turn could have impacted Watsco's share price.
Watsco share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Watsco's shares have ranged in value from as little as $140.676 up to $273.99. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Watsco's is 0.7242. This would suggest that Watsco's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).
Watsco overview
Watsco, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes air conditioning, heating, and refrigeration equipment; and related parts and supplies in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. It offers residential ducted and ductless air conditioners, including gas, electric, and oil furnaces; commercial air conditioning and heating equipment systems; and other specialized equipment. The company also provides parts comprising replacement compressors, evaporator coils, motors, and other component parts; and supplies, such as thermostats, insulation materials, refrigerants, ductworks, grills, registers, sheet metals, tools, copper tubing, concrete pads, tapes, adhesives, and other ancillary supplies, as well as plumbing and bathroom remodeling supplies. It serves contractors and dealers that service the replacement and new construction markets for residential and light commercial central air conditioning, heating, and refrigeration systems. In addition, the company exports its products to Latin America and the Caribbean Basin. Watsco, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.
Frequently asked questions
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