National Pension Service Acquires 260,668 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

National Pension Service boosted its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 726.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 260,668 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Pentair were worth $29,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PNR. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 15.7% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,395 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 734 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 7.2% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 19,235 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 5.0% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 4,332 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 13.1% during the third quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 10,131 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $991,000 after acquiring an additional 1,171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 10.0% during the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 5,321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $520,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pentair Stock Up 1.4 %

PNR stock opened at $94.29 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $99.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Pentair plc has a 1-year low of $72.63 and a 1-year high of $110.71. The stock has a market cap of $15.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.20.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The business had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.06%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on PNR shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. StockNews.com upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays lifted their target price on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.25.

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.