Short Interest in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Drops By 27.0%

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,330,000 shares, a decrease of 27.0% from the March 31st total of 4,560,000 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,700,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PNR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on Pentair from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Pentair from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded Pentair from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their target price for the company from $46.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Pentair from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $89.93.

Pentair Trading Up 1.0 %

PNR stock traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $79.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 959,329 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,557,437. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.00. Pentair has a 1 year low of $53.88 and a 1 year high of $85.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.27, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.04. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.16% and a net margin of 15.30%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. The business's revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Pentair will post 4.23 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair's payout ratio is 24.47%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Pentair by 191.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 70,424 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $5,122,000 after buying an additional 46,290 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Pentair by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,287,364,000 after buying an additional 204,416 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Pentair by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 450,602 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $32,763,000 after buying an additional 108,560 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of Pentair by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $25,299,000 after buying an additional 27,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC bought a new position in shares of Pentair during the 3rd quarter worth $566,000. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company's stock.

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.