Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Rating Increased to Outperform at Robert W. Baird

Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $114.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.93.

Pentair Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of PNR stock opened at $91.11 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.81. Pentair has a 52 week low of $72.63 and a 52 week high of $110.71. The stock has a market cap of $15.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.36, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.87 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Pentair will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PNR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,034,575,000 after buying an additional 148,031 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Pentair by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after acquiring an additional 259,922 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $614,030,000 after acquiring an additional 396,581 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Pentair by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,086,763 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $410,240,000 after purchasing an additional 87,244 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,468,651 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $349,085,000 after purchasing an additional 217,867 shares in the last quarter. 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.