Vestcor Inc Lowers Stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Vestcor Inc cut its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 39.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,509 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Pentair were worth $230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew 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 buying an additional 259,922 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 4.7% in 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 grew 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 period. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Pentair by 17.9% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,351,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $132,141,000 after purchasing an additional 205,000 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Pentair by 0.7% in the fourth 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 period. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PNR. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.93.

Pentair Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE PNR opened at $87.35 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.71. Pentair plc has a 52 week low of $72.63 and a 52 week high of $110.71. 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 cap of $14.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.36, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) 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 the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

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.