Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $111.25.

Several analysts recently issued reports on PNR shares. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Pentair in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR opened at $92.89 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $100.54 and a 200 day moving average of $97.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.20. Pentair has a 12-month low of $72.63 and a 12-month high of $110.71.

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

Pentair Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Parvin Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pentair during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Quarry LP raised its stake in Pentair by 105.5% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake in Pentair by 753.8% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC raised its stake in Pentair by 230.8% during the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 344 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Pentair by 165.2% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.