Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Sees Large Volume Increase – Time to Buy?

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Wednesday . Approximately 602,065 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 36% from the previous session’s volume of 947,506 shares.The stock last traded at $102.28 and had previously closed at $100.28.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PNR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $115.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.13.

Pentair Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $16.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $104.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $94.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

Pentair Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a boost from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. Pentair’s payout ratio is presently 25.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total transaction of $357,615.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,916,853.44. This trade represents a 15.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in Pentair by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after acquiring an additional 259,922 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Pentair by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pentair by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $389,800,000 after purchasing an additional 19,853 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Pentair by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,944,812 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $225,779,000 after purchasing an additional 20,946 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,727,718 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $209,132,000 after buying an additional 53,787 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.