Bridgewater Associates LP Takes $239,000 Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,377 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PNR. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 753.8% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank raised its holdings in Pentair by 144.9% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Pentair during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth approximately $60,000. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Pentair from $118.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com lowered Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Robert W. Baird raised Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.00.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE PNR opened at $80.27 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $72.63 and a 1 year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The company had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $970.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. 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 1.25%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.74%.

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.