ING Groep NV Buys 96,969 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

ING Groep NV lifted its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 438.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 119,103 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 96,969 shares during the period. ING Groep NV owned 0.07% of Pentair worth $11,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 105.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,369 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 1.3% during the 4th 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. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,337 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $131,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $111.25.

Pentair Price Performance

Pentair stock opened at $95.17 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market capitalization of $15.73 billion, a PE ratio of 25.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.20. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $100.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $97.91.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.94% and a net margin of 15.32%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This is a boost from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

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.