Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Shares Sold by Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,085 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 110 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $5,745,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PNR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Pentair by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,034,575,000 after buying an additional 148,031 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after purchasing an additional 259,922 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Pentair by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pentair by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $389,800,000 after purchasing an additional 19,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Pentair by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,010,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $101,653,000 after purchasing an additional 7,434 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of PNR opened at $91.11 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $95.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.81. 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 has a market capitalization of $15.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.36, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair plc has a one year low of $72.63 and a one year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, 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 research note on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.93.

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.