Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 148,031 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 148,031 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 12.24% of Pentair worth $2,034,575,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in Pentair during the 4th quarter worth about $989,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in Pentair during the third quarter worth approximately $479,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Pentair by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Pentair by 47.4% in the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 19,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,944,000 after buying an additional 6,391 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 59,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,856,000 after buying an additional 14,057 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Stock Down 1.3 %

Pentair stock opened at $90.02 on Thursday. Pentair plc has a fifty-two week low of $72.63 and a fifty-two week high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $95.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.75. The stock has a market cap of $14.84 billion, a PE ratio of 24.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 EPS. Research analysts predict 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, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 26.74%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PNR. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pentair currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.27.

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.