Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Sells 395,891 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,691,381 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 395,891 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Pentair were worth $472,141,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PNR. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in Pentair by 105.5% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 753.8% in the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Eastern Bank raised its position in shares of Pentair by 144.9% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth $55,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in Pentair during the fourth quarter valued at about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Stock Down 1.0 %

PNR stock opened at $89.19 on Friday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.69. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71. The company has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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, equities research analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Pentair’s payout ratio is 26.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.27.

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.