Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Shares Sold by Stevens Capital Management LP

Stevens Capital Management LP trimmed its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 150 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in Pentair were worth $229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pentair by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,287,364,000 after purchasing an additional 204,416 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in Pentair by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 9,897,479 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $718,440,000 after buying an additional 131,745 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Pentair by 6.0% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,724,390 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $111,654,000 after buying an additional 98,175 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Pentair by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,360,911 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $88,119,000 after buying an additional 16,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Pentair by 7.9% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,083,616 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $70,164,000 after buying an additional 79,585 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pentair Price Performance

Pentair stock traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $79.96. 940,223 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,644,687. The company has a market capitalization of $13.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $71.89. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $53.88 and a 1 year high of $85.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.16% and a net margin of 15.30%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.21 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PNR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Pentair from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 15th. BNP Paribas started coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $86.00 price target for the company. Mizuho raised their target price on Pentair from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Pentair from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.93.

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.