Trexquant Investment LP Makes New Investment in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,110 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $514,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PNR. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 219.0% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,863,000 after buying an additional 415,163 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Pentair during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,568,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in Pentair by 67.4% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,390,000 after acquiring an additional 357,523 shares during the period. National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 726.4% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,845,000 after acquiring an additional 260,668 shares during the period. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in Pentair by 349.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 263,256 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,135,000 after purchasing an additional 204,683 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PNR. Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Barclays dropped their price target 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. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.27.

Pentair Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE PNR opened at $82.03 on Friday. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71. The company has a market capitalization of $13.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $89.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.77.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The company 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%. Pentair’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.