Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Shares Sold by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP cut its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 33.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,611 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 8,703 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Pentair were worth $1,772,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the fourth quarter worth $989,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Pentair in the 3rd quarter worth $479,000. FMR LLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 47.4% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 19,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,944,000 after acquiring an additional 6,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Pentair by 30.7% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 59,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,856,000 after acquiring an additional 14,057 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of PNR opened at $89.85 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $95.54 and its 200-day moving average is $98.77. Pentair plc has a one year low of $72.63 and a one year high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. Pentair’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PNR. Citigroup lowered their price objective on 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 dropped their price target 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. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.93.

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.