Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Sets New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $110.00 to $115.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Pentair traded as high as $107.56 and last traded at $107.54, with a volume of 419711 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $104.08.

PNR has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Pentair from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $105.13.

Insider Activity at Pentair

In other Pentair news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total value of $357,615.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,232 shares in the company, valued at $1,916,853.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Pentair by 0.5% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 336,361 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Pentair in the first quarter valued at $203,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Pentair in the first quarter valued at $1,100,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in Pentair by 5.1% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 185,155 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $15,820,000 after purchasing an additional 8,966 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Pentair by 11.1% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 285,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $24,370,000 after purchasing an additional 28,423 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Trading Up 2.2 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.94.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $993.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.53 million. Pentair had a net margin of 16.29% and a return on equity of 20.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Pentair’s payout ratio is presently 23.00%.

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.