Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Receives $111.25 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $111.25.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on PNR shares. Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Thursday, November 21st. UBS Group upped their price target on Pentair from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE PNR traded down $1.00 on Monday, hitting $95.17. 1,006,184 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,342,848. 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 50-day moving average price is $101.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.93. Pentair has a fifty-two week low of $72.63 and a fifty-two week high of $110.71. The firm has a market cap of $15.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.20.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last released its 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 return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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. On average, research analysts expect that Pentair will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This is a positive change from Pentair's previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Pentair's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PNR. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $197,482,000 after purchasing an additional 428,184 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of Pentair by 219.0% in the 4th 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. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Pentair by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $614,030,000 after buying an additional 396,581 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Pentair by 862.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $43,212,000 after buying an additional 395,962 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Pentair in the 4th quarter worth $36,568,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.