Inspire Advisors LLC Sells 616 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Inspire Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 7.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,505 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 616 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PNR. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 105.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 753.8% in the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 144.9% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of Pentair in the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,000. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Pentair has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.25.

Pentair Stock Up 1.1 %

PNR opened at $86.09 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.19 billion, a PE ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $97.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.74. Pentair plc has a 1-year low of $72.63 and a 1-year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Pentair’s payout ratio is 26.74%.

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.