Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Acquires 62,926 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,749,965 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 62,926 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.06% of Pentair worth $176,117,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 55.0% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 809 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new position in Pentair during the 4th quarter worth approximately $289,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pentair in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,568,000. Q3 Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at $320,000. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Pentair by 91.8% during the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 4,150 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 1,986 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total transaction of $589,826.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,313 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,366,591.22. This represents a 19.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Pentair Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:PNR traded up $0.84 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $99.65. 805,163 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,504,669. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $89.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.30. The stock has a market cap of $16.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.11. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.38 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Pentair's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Pentair from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $113.00 in a report on Friday, May 16th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Pentair from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pentair presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $107.14.

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.