Metis Global Partners LLC Reduces Stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Metis Global Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 4.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,969 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,449 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $2,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Pentair by 191.8% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 70,424 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,122,000 after buying an additional 46,290 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter valued at $69,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Pentair by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,287,364,000 after buying an additional 204,416 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 450,602 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,763,000 after acquiring an additional 108,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in Pentair by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,299,000 after acquiring an additional 27,122 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PNR. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Pentair from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup upped their price target on Pentair from $85.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Bank of America upgraded Pentair from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. UBS Group increased their target price on Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.93.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR opened at $82.23 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $80.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.79. Pentair plc has a 52-week low of $55.26 and a 52-week high of $85.81. The company has a market cap of $13.65 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.24.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Pentair had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 20.16%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th were given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. Pentair’s payout ratio is 24.47%.

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.