Donoghue Forlines LLC Invests $1.97 Million in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Donoghue Forlines LLC purchased a new position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 19,564 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,969,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PNR. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Pentair by 862.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,212,000 after buying an additional 395,962 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Pentair in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,748,000. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Pentair by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $856,257,000 after acquiring an additional 259,922 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Pentair by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pentair by 44.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 672,870 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $51,589,000 after purchasing an additional 207,830 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Pentair

In other Pentair news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total transaction of $357,615.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,232 shares in the company, valued at $1,916,853.44. The trade was a 15.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE PNR opened at $104.38 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $104.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $95.48. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $70.59 and a 12-month high of $110.71. The company has a market capitalization of $17.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. The business had revenue of $993.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $988.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.96%. This is an increase from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on PNR shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Pentair from $115.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.13.

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.