Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Given Average Rating of "Buy" by Brokerages

Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Buy" from the sixteen analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $107.14.

Several equities analysts have commented on PNR shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Pentair from $114.00 to $107.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Baird R W upgraded shares of Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Pentair from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR opened at $97.19 on Friday. Pentair has a 1 year low of $72.63 and a 1 year high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company's 50-day moving average is $94.27 and its 200 day moving average is $95.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.10.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.10. Pentair had a net margin of 15.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.38 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pentair will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. Pentair's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total transaction of $589,826.52. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,313 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,366,591.22. This represents a 19.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PNR. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Pentair by 55.0% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 809 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth $36,568,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 91.8% during the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 4,150 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 1,986 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in Pentair by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 4,075 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $356,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in Pentair by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 32,225 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $3,243,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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