Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Lifted to Buy at Northcoast Research

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was upgraded by analysts at Northcoast Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $100.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock. Northcoast Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 23.30% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $91.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Pentair from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Bank of America raised Pentair from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. UBS Group upped their target price on Pentair from $72.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price target (up previously from $82.00) on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.33.

Pentair Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $81.10 on Monday. Pentair has a 52 week low of $51.38 and a 52 week high of $85.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.65. The company has a market cap of $13.46 billion, a PE ratio of 21.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.03.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.01. Pentair had a net margin of 15.17% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $984.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $975.36 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.82 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Pentair will post 4.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PNR. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its position in Pentair by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,160 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $448,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 29,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,486,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 3,928 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its stake in Pentair by 82.4% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its position in Pentair by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 32,590 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,369,000 after acquiring an additional 172 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.