3,333 Shares in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Purchased by GF Fund Management CO. LTD.

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 3,333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its stake in shares of Pentair by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 7,628 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $768,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Pentair by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,194 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $120,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Pentair by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 12,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Pentair by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 27,893 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,807,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PNR. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays upped their price objective on Pentair from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on Pentair from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $95.00 price target on Pentair and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Mizuho set a $100.00 price objective on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $107.14.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total value of $589,826.52. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,366,591.22. This represents a 19.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $96.79 on Monday. 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 price is $88.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.31. The company has a market cap of $15.92 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.11. Pentair plc has a fifty-two week low of $72.63 and a fifty-two week high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.38 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Pentair’s payout ratio is 25.84%.

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.