Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Upgraded to "Buy" by Northcoast Research

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Northcoast Research from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $100.00 price objective on the industrial products company's stock. Northcoast Research's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 24.47% from the company's current price.

Several other analysts have also commented on PNR. KeyCorp raised their target price on Pentair from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating and set a $91.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group upped their price target on Pentair from $72.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Pentair from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $87.33.

Pentair Stock Performance

Pentair stock traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $80.34. 1,235,127 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,630,835. Pentair has a 1 year low of $51.38 and a 1 year high of $85.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $79.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.03.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.01. Pentair had a net margin of 15.17% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The business had revenue of $984.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $975.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.82 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Pentair will post 4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 191.8% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 70,424 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $5,122,000 after acquiring an additional 46,290 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 204,416 shares in 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 buying an additional 108,560 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $25,299,000 after buying an additional 27,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pentair in the 3rd quarter valued at $566,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company's stock.

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.