Vanguard Group Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 148,031 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Pentair worth $2,034,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP increased its holdings in Pentair by 105.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. boosted its position in Pentair by 753.8% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the period. Eastern Bank increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 144.9% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $56,000. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Barclays decreased their price target on Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pentair currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Performance

Pentair stock opened at $90.02 on Thursday. Pentair plc has a fifty-two week low of $72.63 and a fifty-two week high of $110.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $95.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.75. The stock has a market cap of $14.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The business had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.87 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

About Pentair

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.