Northcoast Research Upgrades Pentair (NYSE:PNR) to “Strong-Buy”

Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

PNR has been the subject of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.25.

Pentair Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of PNR opened at $98.56 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $103.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.64, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Pentair has a 1-year low of $72.44 and a 1-year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a net margin of 16.29% and a return on equity of 20.48%. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pentair will post 4.28 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.01%. This is a boost from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 73.0% during the 4th quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 62,382 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,278,000 after acquiring an additional 26,331 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. bought a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at $216,000. Inceptionr LLC bought a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at $1,772,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at $14,989,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 48,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,838,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Company Profile

Pentair plc provides various water solutions in the United States, Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The company operates through three segments: Flow, Water Solutions, and Pool. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products and systems, including pressure vessels, gas recovery solutions, membrane bioreactors, wastewater reuse systems and advanced membrane filtration, separation systems, water disposal pumps, water supply pumps, fluid transfer pumps, turbine pumps, solid handling pumps, and agricultural spray nozzles for fluid delivery, ion exchange, desalination, food and beverage, separation technologies in the oil and gas industry, residential and municipal wells, water treatment, wastewater solids handling, pressure boosting, circulation and transfer, fire suppression, flood control, agricultural irrigation, and crop spray in residential, commercial, and industrial markets.