Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

PNR has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Down 8.6 %

Shares of NYSE:PNR traded down $7.62 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $81.47. The company had a trading volume of 2,114,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,466,592. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $93.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Pentair has a one year low of $72.63 and a one year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Pentair will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at about $989,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $389,800,000 after acquiring an additional 19,853 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 55.0% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 809 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new stake in Pentair during the fourth quarter worth approximately $289,000. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in Pentair by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 23,712 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,386,000 after purchasing an additional 4,308 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.