Aurora Investment Counsel Sells 1,376 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Aurora Investment Counsel reduced its holdings in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 8.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,385 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,376 shares during the quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in Pentair were worth $1,407,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 10.7% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,585 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 636 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in Pentair by 222.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 50,653 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,328,000 after acquiring an additional 34,959 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Pentair by 0.9% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,146,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $87,885,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in Pentair in the second quarter valued at about $631,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in Pentair in the first quarter valued at about $1,487,000. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PNR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on Pentair from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Pentair from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Pentair from $101.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $105.13.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE:PNR opened at $104.17 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.91. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $62.23 and a 1 year high of $107.78. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.85. The company has a market cap of $17.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.04, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.19.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.02. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. The business had revenue of $993.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.53 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 23.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of Pentair stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total value of $357,615.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,232 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,916,853.44. The trade was a 15.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% 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.