StockNews.com Upgrades Pentair (NYSE:PNR) to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on PNR. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $85.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $92.87.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of PNR opened at $88.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $79.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.65 billion, a PE ratio of 23.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Pentair has a 52-week low of $57.18 and a 52-week high of $88.96.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.08. Pentair had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 20.39%. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.03 EPS. Pentair’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pentair will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jerome O. Pedretti sold 24,747 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.45, for a total value of $2,089,884.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 38,538 shares in the company, valued at $3,254,534.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Pentair in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its holdings in Pentair by 82.4% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 112.7% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in Pentair during the second quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, Rational Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 200.0% during the first quarter. Rational Advisors LLC now owns 633 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.