Xponance Inc. Buys 1,420 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 6.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 23,873 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,420 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $2,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP grew its stake in Pentair by 105.5% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 753.8% in the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank grew its position in shares of Pentair by 144.9% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Pentair during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $87.44 on Friday. 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 stock has a market cap of $14.41 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $95.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.56.

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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Pentair’s payout ratio is 26.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Pentair in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com raised Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pentair currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.93.

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.