Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Pentair (NYSE:PNR)

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 3,023 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 179% compared to the average volume of 1,082 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their price target on Pentair from $90.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Northcoast Research cut shares of Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Pentair from $92.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.87.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kodai Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $173,280,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in Pentair by 352.5% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,577,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $134,695,000 after purchasing an additional 1,228,635 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Pentair during the first quarter worth $97,083,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 91.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,082,362 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $159,655,000 after buying an additional 996,325 shares during the period. Finally, Interval Partners LP lifted its stake in Pentair by 289.6% during the 2nd quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 956,117 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $73,305,000 after acquiring an additional 710,703 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Price Performance

Pentair stock opened at $93.48 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $15.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.86, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $85.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.05. Pentair has a 12-month low of $57.18 and a 12-month high of $95.41.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.39% and a net margin of 16.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pentair will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

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.