Aviva PLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Aviva PLC decreased its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 13.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 387,769 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 59,264 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $39,025,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in PNR. Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at $989,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Pentair by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $389,800,000 after buying an additional 19,853 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Pentair by 55.0% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 809 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new stake in Pentair in the fourth quarter worth about $289,000. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in Pentair by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 23,712 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,386,000 after acquiring an additional 4,308 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on PNR. Baird R W raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup dropped 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, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pentair currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Down 3.5 %

PNR opened at $78.66 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. Pentair plc has a one year low of $71.89 and a one year high of $110.71. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $92.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.58. 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 posted its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Pentair 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.