Baird R W Upgrades Pentair (NYSE:PNR) to Strong-Buy

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was upgraded by equities researchers at Baird R W from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Barclays raised their price target on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. 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, StockNews.com raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $90.02 on Tuesday. Pentair has a twelve month low of $72.63 and a twelve month high of $110.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company’s 50 day moving average is $95.13 and its 200 day moving average is $98.75. The company has a market cap of $14.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

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 the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Pentair will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at about $989,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pentair in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $479,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 47.4% in the 3rd 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. raised its holdings in Pentair by 30.7% during the 3rd 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 period. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Company 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.