17,400 Shares in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Acquired by Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 17,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,487,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PNR. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in Pentair by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 9,897,479 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $718,440,000 after purchasing an additional 131,745 shares during the period. Kodai Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter worth approximately $173,280,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Pentair by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,377,786 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $100,179,000 after purchasing an additional 16,875 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Pentair by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,191,049 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $86,601,000 after purchasing an additional 392,785 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Pentair by 138.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 834,203 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,655,000 after purchasing an additional 484,810 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pentair

In related news, Director David A. /Wi Jones 2,004 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jerome O. Pedretti sold 24,747 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.45, for a total transaction of $2,089,884.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 38,538 shares in the company, valued at $3,254,534.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David A. /Wi Jones 2,004 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The disclosure for this trade can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PNR shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $90.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price 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. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Pentair from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.87.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of Pentair stock traded down $0.09 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $87.79. 334,134 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,641,298. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $79.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.93. Pentair plc has a twelve month low of $57.18 and a twelve month high of $88.98. The company has a market cap of $14.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.43, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.21.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.08. Pentair had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 20.39%. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th will be given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.47%.

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.