HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 3,186 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,849 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,186 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $4,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Pentair by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after buying an additional 259,922 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $557,860,000 after acquiring an additional 258,134 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Pentair by 0.5% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,351,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $132,141,000 after purchasing an additional 205,000 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,010,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $101,653,000 after purchasing an additional 7,434 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on PNR shares. Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup lowered their target price 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. Barclays lifted their price target 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 restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.93.

Pentair Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE PNR opened at $89.19 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.85, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair plc has a 52 week low of $72.63 and a 52 week high of $110.71. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $96.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.65. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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 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 firm’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 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

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

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.