Bailard Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Bailard Inc. increased its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,392 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $845,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Pentair by 862.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,212,000 after buying an additional 395,962 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Pentair by 67.4% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,390,000 after acquiring an additional 357,523 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Pentair in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,748,000. National Pension Service lifted its position in Pentair by 726.4% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,845,000 after acquiring an additional 260,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position 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 valued at $856,257,000 after acquiring an additional 259,922 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of PNR stock opened at $91.54 on Tuesday. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $72.63 and a 1 year high of $110.71. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $99.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.55. The company has a market cap of $15.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.48, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

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

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on PNR shares. Wolfe Research began coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Citigroup decreased their target price on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.25.

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.