Clarius Group LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Clarius Group LLC reduced its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,551 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 315 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $257,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PNR. Quarry LP raised its position in 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 in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Pentair by 165.2% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 144.9% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at about $56,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 4,450.0% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 637 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 623 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PNR shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $115.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Barclays increased their target price on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Pentair from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total value of $357,615.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,916,853.44. This represents a 15.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Pentair Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $102.98 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $104.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $95.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.75, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.21. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $69.56 and a 12-month high of $110.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $993.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.53 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. Analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 4.28 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. This is a positive change from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.00%.

Pentair 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.