Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Has $19.80 Million Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 125.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 196,700 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 109,300 shares during the period. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. owned 0.12% of Pentair worth $19,796,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Pentair by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $197,482,000 after purchasing an additional 428,184 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Pentair by 219.0% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $60,863,000 after buying an additional 415,163 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Pentair by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $614,030,000 after acquiring an additional 396,581 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at $36,568,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in Pentair by 67.4% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pentair news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 owns 26,313 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,366,591.22. The trade was a 19.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PNR. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Pentair from $118.00 to $98.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $107.14.

Pentair Stock Down 0.9%

PNR traded down $0.91 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $98.82. 737,716 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,507,467. The stock has a market cap of $16.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.11. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $89.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $96.30. Pentair plc has a fifty-two week low of $72.63 and a fifty-two week high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $988.38 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. Pentair's payout ratio is 25.84%.

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.