Robert W. Baird Upgrades Pentair (NYSE:PNR) to Outperform

Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $114.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also commented on PNR. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $89.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.69. The firm has a market cap of $14.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair has a fifty-two week low of $72.63 and a fifty-two week high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

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

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pentair by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,216,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,034,575,000 after purchasing an additional 148,031 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Pentair by 3.1% in 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Pentair by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $614,030,000 after purchasing an additional 396,581 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,086,763 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $410,240,000 after purchasing an additional 87,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,468,651 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $349,085,000 after purchasing an additional 217,867 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.