Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Upgraded at Northcoast Research

Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on PNR. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Six equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.25.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR opened at $97.88 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $16.17 billion, a PE ratio of 24.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.20. Pentair has a 12 month low of $72.44 and a 12 month high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.25.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 16.29% and a return on equity of 20.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Pentair will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a boost from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. Pentair’s payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PNR. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 862.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 395,962 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted 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 worth $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the third quarter worth $26,748,000. National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 726.4% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,845,000 after purchasing an additional 260,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after purchasing an additional 259,922 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.