Prudential Financial Inc. Raises Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 202.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 171,173 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 114,634 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.10% of Pentair worth $17,227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 219.0% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,863,000 after buying an additional 415,163 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Pentair by 862.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,212,000 after purchasing an additional 395,962 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in Pentair by 67.4% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,748,000. Finally, National Pension Service grew its position in shares of Pentair by 726.4% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,845,000 after purchasing an additional 260,668 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PNR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup dropped their price objective 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. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $89.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $94.86 and a 200 day moving average of $98.69. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The business had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $970.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s 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.