Blueshift Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 2,980 Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 2,980 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $300,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Pentair by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after purchasing an additional 259,922 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Pentair by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $557,860,000 after buying an additional 258,134 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Pentair by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $389,800,000 after buying an additional 19,853 shares during the period. Swedbank AB grew its position in Pentair by 17.9% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,351,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $132,141,000 after buying an additional 205,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Pentair by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,010,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $101,653,000 after acquiring an additional 7,434 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pentair Price Performance

PNR opened at $87.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $95.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.56. The firm has a market cap of $14.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $72.63 and a 1 year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on PNR shares. Citigroup dropped their price target on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Pentair in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.93.

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.