Russell Investments Group Ltd. Increases Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 334,613 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 37,163 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.20% of Pentair worth $24,345,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Pentair by 191.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 70,424 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $5,122,000 after acquiring an additional 46,290 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pentair in the fourth quarter worth $69,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,287,364,000 after acquiring an additional 204,416 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 450,602 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $32,763,000 after acquiring an additional 108,560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Pentair by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $25,299,000 after acquiring an additional 27,122 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, April 15th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Pentair from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Pentair from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Pentair from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $89.93.

Pentair Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE PNR traded down $0.23 during trading on Thursday, hitting $78.84. The stock had a trading volume of 1,860,257 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,638,150. Pentair plc has a one year low of $55.26 and a one year high of $85.81. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.91 EPS. Pentair's quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair's dividend payout ratio is currently 24.47%.

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.