Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Upgraded to Overweight at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was upgraded by research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $113.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $90.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target points to a potential upside of 15.57% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also commented on PNR. Barclays lifted their price target on Pentair from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $99.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Pentair from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pentair has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $107.14.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE:PNR opened at $97.78 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.11. Pentair has a twelve month low of $72.63 and a twelve month high of $110.71. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $87.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $96.44. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.10. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.38 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Pentair will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pentair news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total transaction of $589,826.52. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,313 shares in the company, valued at $2,366,591.22. This represents a 19.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PNR. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Pentair by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 38,304 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,351,000 after purchasing an additional 2,053 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Pentair in the first quarter worth approximately $1,993,000. Amundi grew its holdings in Pentair by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 4,974,612 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $412,033,000 after acquiring an additional 594,989 shares in the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Pentair by 60.5% in the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 35,540 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,109,000 after purchasing an additional 13,402 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 42.2% in the 1st quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 610,802 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $53,433,000 after purchasing an additional 181,400 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.