Board of the Pension Protection Fund Invests $534,000 in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 6,100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $534,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Pentair by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,034,575,000 after buying an additional 148,031 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $614,030,000 after acquiring an additional 396,581 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pentair by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,086,763 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $410,240,000 after acquiring an additional 87,244 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Pentair by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,468,651 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $349,085,000 after acquiring an additional 217,867 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Pentair by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $197,482,000 after acquiring an additional 428,184 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on PNR shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Pentair from $118.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Pentair from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Baird R W raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Wall Street Zen raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Pentair from $114.00 to $107.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $107.14.

Pentair Price Performance

Pentair stock opened at $102.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.91 billion, a PE ratio of 26.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.22. Pentair plc has a one year low of $73.45 and a one year high of $110.71. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.13.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.38 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.84%.

Insider Transactions at Pentair

In other Pentair news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total transaction of $589,826.52. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,313 shares in the company, valued at $2,366,591.22. This represents a 19.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.10% 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.