Comparing JBT Marel (NYSE:JBTM) and Pentair (NYSE:PNR)

JBT Marel (NYSE:JBTM) and Pentair (NYSE:PNR) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for JBT Marel and Pentair, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JBT Marel	0	0	1	0	3.00
Pentair	0	5	10	1	2.75

JBT Marel presently has a consensus price target of $143.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.85%. Pentair has a consensus price target of $111.25, suggesting a potential upside of 12.15%. Given Pentair’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Pentair is more favorable than JBT Marel.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares JBT Marel and Pentair”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JBT Marel	$1.66 billion	2.45	$582.60 million	$5.39	23.72
Pentair	$4.08 billion	4.01	$622.70 million	$3.74	26.52

Pentair has higher revenue and earnings than JBT Marel. JBT Marel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pentair, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

JBT Marel has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pentair has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.9% of JBT Marel shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Pentair shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of JBT Marel shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Pentair shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares JBT Marel and Pentair’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JBT Marel	10.25%	10.16%	5.68%
Pentair	15.32%	20.94%	11.05%

Dividends

JBT Marel pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Pentair pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. JBT Marel pays out 7.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pentair pays out 26.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Summary

Pentair beats JBT Marel on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JBT Marel

JBT Marel Corporation provides technology solutions to food and beverage industry in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It offers value-added processing that includes chilling, mixing/grinding, injecting, blending, marinating, tumbling, flattening, forming, portioning, coating, cooking, frying, freezing, extracting, pasteurizing, sterilizing, concentrating, high pressure processing, weighing, inspecting, filling, closing, sealing, end of line material handling, and packaging solutions to the food, beverage, and health market. In addition, it offers automated guided vehicle systems for material movement in the manufacturing, warehouse, and medical facilities. It serves baby food, bakery and confectionery, citrus processing, fruits and nuts, juices, non-food, pet food, pharmaceutical, plant- based beverages and protein, poultry, meat, and seafood, ready meals, oils, soups, sauces, seasoning and dressings, automotive, building material, tissue, paper, and packaging, hospitals, pharma and life sciences, fast moving consumer goods, manufacturing, warehousing, and other industries. The company markets and sells its products and solutions through direct sales force, independent distributors, sales representatives, and technical service teams. The company was formerly known as John Bean Technologies Corporation and changed its name to JBT Marel Corporation in January 2025. JBT Marel Corporation was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

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. The Water Solutions segment provides commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, including pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, commercial ice machines, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems, as well as installation and preventative services for use in residential whole home water filtration, drinking water filtration, and water softening solutions, as well as commercial total water management and filtration in foodservice operations. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories comprising pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for applications in residential and commercial pool maintenance, pool repair, renovation, service, and construction and aquaculture solutions. Pentair plc was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.