Blue Trust Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 59.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 838 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $82,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Pentair by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $856,257,000 after buying an additional 259,922 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Pentair by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after acquiring an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $389,800,000 after purchasing an additional 19,853 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of Pentair by 11.9% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,489,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $143,823,000 after purchasing an additional 158,433 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in Pentair by 17.9% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,351,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $132,141,000 after purchasing an additional 205,000 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $97.88 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $102.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.25. Pentair plc has a 52-week low of $72.44 and a 52-week high of $110.71. 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 company has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.20.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. This is an increase from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Pentair from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has a consensus 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.