Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Lowers Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lessened its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 9.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 83,080 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 8,657 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $7,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PNR. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its position in Pentair by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 7,628 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $768,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Pentair by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,194 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in Pentair by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 12,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in Pentair by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 32,225 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,243,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV increased its position in Pentair by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 29,930 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pentair

In related news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total value of $589,826.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,366,591.22. This trade represents a 19.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.45% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Stock Performance

PNR stock opened at $101.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $16.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.18, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.12. 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 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.89.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.38 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 25.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Baird R W upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Pentair from $114.00 to $107.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Pentair and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $107.14.

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.