Clarius Group LLC Sells 270 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Clarius Group LLC decreased its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,072 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Round Rock Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Pentair during the 4th quarter valued at $313,000. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth about $333,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in Pentair by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 9,897,479 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $718,440,000 after buying an additional 131,745 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at about $340,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Pentair by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,299,000 after acquiring an additional 27,122 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE PNR opened at $80.34 on Tuesday. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $51.38 and a 1 year high of $85.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.14.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.01. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 15.17%. The firm had revenue of $984.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $975.36 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.82 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 24.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on PNR. Northcoast Research raised Pentair from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com cut Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Pentair from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.33.

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.