Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Decreases Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. reduced its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,284 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $1,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PNR. Quarry LP raised its position in Pentair by 105.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 753.8% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Pentair by 165.2% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. Eastern Bank boosted its holdings in Pentair by 144.9% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in Pentair during the 4th quarter valued at $56,000. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on PNR. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group increased their target price on Pentair from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.25.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of PNR opened at $97.88 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.17 billion, a PE ratio of 24.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.20. Pentair plc has a 1-year low of $72.44 and a 1-year high of $110.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $97.25.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The company 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 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. Pentair’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.87 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.28 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a boost from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

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.