Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Sets New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after KeyCorp raised their price target on the stock from $97.00 to $110.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Pentair traded as high as $98.58 and last traded at $98.35, with a volume of 105986 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $97.63.

PNR has been the subject of several other research reports. Northcoast Research cut Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Pentair from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Pentair from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Pentair from $96.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.33.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PNR. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Pentair by 0.7% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,944,812 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $225,779,000 after purchasing an additional 20,946 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Pentair by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,727,718 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $209,132,000 after acquiring an additional 53,787 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Pentair by 91.7% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,082,362 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $159,655,000 after acquiring an additional 996,325 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,639,547 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $125,704,000 after purchasing an additional 105,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 352.5% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,577,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $134,695,000 after purchasing an additional 1,228,635 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $89.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.90. The firm has a market cap of $16.33 billion, a PE ratio of 25.97, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.20.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.08. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.39% and a net margin of 16.05%. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.47%.

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.