Securian Asset Management Inc. Lowers Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Securian Asset Management Inc. cut its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 214 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $894,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Pentair by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,194 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Pentair by 50.7% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,456 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 826 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Pentair by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 2,580 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its holdings in Pentair by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 7,628 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $768,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in Pentair by 29.6% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 77,621 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 17,741 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR opened at $86.18 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $96.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.63. The firm has a market cap of $14.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair plc has a 52 week low of $72.63 and a 52 week high of $110.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $970.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on PNR shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Four investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.93.

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.