Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Sells 88,797 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lowered its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 30.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 207,591 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 88,797 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. owned about 0.13% of Pentair worth $20,892,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PNR. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 219.0% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,863,000 after acquiring an additional 415,163 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in Pentair by 862.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,212,000 after purchasing an additional 395,962 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in Pentair by 67.4% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Pentair during the third quarter valued at $26,748,000. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 726.4% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 296,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,845,000 after acquiring an additional 260,668 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on PNR shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Pentair in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.93.

Pentair Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE PNR opened at $89.19 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $96.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Pentair plc has a 1-year low of $72.63 and a 1-year high of $110.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.85, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

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 is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is 26.74%.

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.