Prudential Financial Inc. Increases Stock Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 202.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 171,173 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 114,634 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned about 0.10% of Pentair worth $17,227,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of PNR. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of Pentair by 105.5% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 753.8% in the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the period. Eastern Bank grew its stake in Pentair by 144.9% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Pentair during the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PNR shares. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Pentair from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $114.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com raised Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed a "sector weight" rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $112.27.

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Pentair Price Performance

PNR stock traded up $0.48 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $87.96. 1,706,276 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,467,812. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $93.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.80. Pentair plc has a 52-week low of $72.63 and a 52-week high of $110.71. The company has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.74%.

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.