Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 8.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 235,670 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 19,133 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of Pentair worth $20,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,034,575,000 after purchasing an additional 148,031 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $614,030,000 after purchasing an additional 396,581 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,086,763 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $410,240,000 after purchasing an additional 87,244 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,468,651 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $349,085,000 after purchasing an additional 217,867 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $197,482,000 after purchasing an additional 428,184 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on PNR. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Mizuho set a $100.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Baird R W raised shares of Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Pentair from $114.00 to $107.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Pentair from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $90.00 to $113.00 in a report on Friday, May 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $107.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total transaction of $589,826.52. Following the transaction, the director owned 26,313 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 available at this link. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Pentair Stock Down 0.5%

PNR stock traded down $0.59 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $107.09. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,427,750 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,463,915. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.67, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Pentair plc has a 52-week low of $74.25 and a 52-week high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.10. Pentair had a net margin of 15.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.38 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. Pentair's payout ratio is 25.84%.

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.