Sterling Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 55.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,785 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 3,491 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC's holdings in Pentair were worth $985,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pentair by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,034,575,000 after purchasing an additional 148,031 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 396,581 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pentair by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,086,763 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $410,240,000 after purchasing an additional 87,244 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Pentair by 37.0% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,283,164 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $129,137,000 after purchasing an additional 346,843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Pentair by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,010,068 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $101,653,000 after purchasing an additional 7,434 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on PNR. Barclays dropped their target price on Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Pentair from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Baird R W raised Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Pentair from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $114.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $110.00.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR traded down $0.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $80.27. The company had a trading volume of 1,473,277 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,503,119. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.24 billion, a PE ratio of 21.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. Pentair plc has a twelve month low of $72.63 and a twelve month high of $110.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $87.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $97.22.

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

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Pentair's payout ratio 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.