Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) shares gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $102.63, but opened at $99.55. Pentair shares last traded at $100.38, with a volume of 523,812 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PNR has been the topic of several analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Pentair from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.07.

Pentair Trading Down 2.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company’s 50 day moving average is $103.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $96.96. The firm has a market cap of $16.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.97, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.20.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a net margin of 16.29% and a return on equity of 20.48%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Pentair by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Pentair by 1.6% during the third quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 8,121 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its stake in Pentair by 105.5% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Pentair by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,369 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $540,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Pentair by 5.7% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,923 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $286,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. 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.