Inspire Advisors LLC Sells 616 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Inspire Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,505 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 616 shares during the quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PNR. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 862.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,212,000 after buying an additional 395,962 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 67.4% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,390,000 after acquiring an additional 357,523 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Pentair in the third quarter worth about $26,748,000. National Pension Service increased its stake in Pentair by 726.4% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,845,000 after acquiring an additional 260,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Pentair by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $856,257,000 after purchasing an additional 259,922 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Price Performance

NYSE PNR opened at $86.09 on Wednesday. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $72.63 and a 12-month high of $110.71. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.74. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $14.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Pentair Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.74%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PNR. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. 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 set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.25.

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.