Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Position Lessened by Impax Asset Management Group plc

Impax Asset Management Group plc decreased its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 33.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,061,719 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,557,006 shares during the quarter. Pentair comprises approximately 2.3% of Impax Asset Management Group plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Impax Asset Management Group plc’s holdings in Pentair were worth $508,426,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. World Equity Group Inc. boosted its stake in Pentair by 100.1% during the 4th quarter. World Equity Group Inc. now owns 6,950 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $699,000 after acquiring an additional 3,476 shares during the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 35,030 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,525,000 after purchasing an additional 6,900 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Pentair by 67.4% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV grew its stake in Pentair by 438.1% in the fourth quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 119,103 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,987,000 after purchasing an additional 96,969 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC increased its holdings in Pentair by 428.6% in the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 61,928 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,232,000 after buying an additional 50,213 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Stock Down 2.5 %

PNR opened at $92.89 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $100.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.20. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71.

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

Pentair Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This is a positive change from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on PNR shares. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.