Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Short Interest Down 23.2% in November

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,420,000 shares, a decline of 23.2% from the October 31st total of 3,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,430,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Pentair from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Pentair from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a report on Thursday, November 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Pentair from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $106.38.

Pentair Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE PNR opened at $108.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.19. Pentair has a 52 week low of $63.09 and a 52 week high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $100.57 and a 200-day moving average of $88.85.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $993.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.53 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. The company’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Pentair will post 4.28 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 23.00%.

Insider Transactions at Pentair

In related news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total value of $357,615.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,916,853.44. This trade represents a 15.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 91.7% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,082,362 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $159,655,000 after acquiring an additional 996,325 shares during the period. Interval Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 289.6% in the 2nd quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 956,117 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $73,305,000 after purchasing an additional 710,703 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $43,212,000 after buying an additional 395,962 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Pentair in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,748,000. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in Pentair by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $856,257,000 after acquiring an additional 259,922 shares in the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.