Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

PNR has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Pentair from $101.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Pentair from $101.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Northcoast Research cut shares of Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $104.80.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $98.00 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $92.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market cap of $16.22 billion, a PE ratio of 24.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.20. Pentair has a 52 week low of $57.18 and a 52 week high of $99.96.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $993.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.53 million. Pentair had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 20.39%. Pentair’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Pentair will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.29%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pentair in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Crewe Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 376.1% in the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Pentair by 165.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Pentair during the 2nd quarter worth $48,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Pentair during the 1st quarter worth $56,000. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.