Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Pentair (NYSE:PNR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports 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. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.27.

Pentair Stock Down 3.5 %

Pentair stock opened at $78.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $92.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.54. Pentair has a 1-year low of $72.63 and a 1-year high of $110.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Pentair will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.27%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its holdings in Pentair by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 7,628 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $768,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Pentair by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,194 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $120,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in Pentair by 105.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Pentair by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,369 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.