Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,494,639 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 76,756 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 1.51% of Pentair worth $251,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PNR. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Pentair by 219.0% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,863,000 after buying an additional 415,163 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Pentair during the 4th quarter worth $36,568,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in Pentair by 67.4% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Pentair by 37.0% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,283,164 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $129,137,000 after buying an additional 346,843 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of PNR opened at $78.79 on Tuesday. Pentair plc has a 1-year low of $72.63 and a 1-year 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. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $87.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.12. The stock has a market cap of $13.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

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 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 1.27%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNR has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $118.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. 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 report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.00.

Pentair 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.