Quantessence Capital LLC Buys New Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Quantessence Capital LLC purchased a new position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 3,774 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $380,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its position in Pentair by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 7,628 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $768,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pentair by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,194 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Pentair by 16.1% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Pentair by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,369 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in Pentair by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 12,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pentair Price Performance

PNR opened at $86.15 on Wednesday. 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 capitalization of $14.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.05. Pentair plc has a one year low of $72.63 and a one year high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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 $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $95.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.43.

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.