Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on PNR. Baird R W raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Down 3.5 %

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $78.66 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $92.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.51. Pentair has a 52-week low of $72.63 and a 52-week high of $110.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Pentair will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PNR. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Pentair by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $197,482,000 after purchasing an additional 428,184 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 219.0% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $60,863,000 after purchasing an additional 415,163 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $614,030,000 after purchasing an additional 396,581 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 862.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,212,000 after buying an additional 395,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,568,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.