Merit Financial Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,046 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Pentair by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,287,364,000 after buying an additional 204,416 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in Pentair by 1.3% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 131,745 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Pentair by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,724,390 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $111,654,000 after purchasing an additional 98,175 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Pentair by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,360,911 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $88,119,000 after purchasing an additional 16,168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,083,616 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $70,164,000 after purchasing an additional 79,585 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Pentair from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Pentair from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Pentair from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Pentair currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.93.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of PNR stock opened at $83.84 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.90. Pentair plc has a one year low of $55.26 and a one year high of $85.81. The company’s 50-day moving average is $81.37 and its 200 day moving average is $73.08.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Pentair had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 20.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 19th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 24.47%.

About Pentair

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.