Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. cut its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,548 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 290 shares during the quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 130.3% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 32,160 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,145,000 after purchasing an additional 18,196 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pentair during the third quarter worth $247,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Pentair during the third quarter worth $479,000. FMR LLC grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 258,134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in Pentair in the 3rd quarter valued at $71,000. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on PNR. StockNews.com upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.27.

Pentair Price Performance

PNR stock opened at $86.76 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $94.54 and a 200-day moving average of $98.69. The company has a market cap of $14.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $72.63 and a 12-month high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. Pentair’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

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.