Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Grows Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 29.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 77,621 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,741 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $7,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Pentair by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after acquiring an additional 259,922 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pentair by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $389,800,000 after purchasing an additional 19,853 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Pentair by 17.9% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,351,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $132,141,000 after purchasing an additional 205,000 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Pentair by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,010,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $101,653,000 after purchasing an additional 7,434 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $86.09 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $14.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.02, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair plc has a one year low of $72.63 and a one year high of $110.71. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60.

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

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PNR. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.25.

Pentair Company 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.