Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Shares Purchased by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 44.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,410 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 432 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $142,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP increased its holdings in Pentair by 105.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 753.8% in the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Eastern Bank raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 144.9% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Pentair during the fourth quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Northcoast Research raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.27.

Pentair Price Performance

NYSE:PNR opened at $87.96 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $93.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.80. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71. The firm has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

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

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be given 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 yield of 1.14%. Pentair’s payout ratio is presently 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.