Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Shares Acquired by Commonwealth Equity Services LLC

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,225 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 191 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $3,243,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PNR. Moody National Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter worth $989,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pentair in the third quarter valued at about $479,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 47.4% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 19,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,944,000 after purchasing an additional 6,391 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in Pentair by 30.7% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 59,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,856,000 after buying an additional 14,057 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on PNR shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Pentair in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. Robert W. Baird upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pentair has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.93.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of PNR stock opened at $91.11 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $72.63 and a 12-month high of $110.71. The business’s 50 day moving average is $95.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.81. The company has a market capitalization of $15.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

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 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 firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $970.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Pentair 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.