Nomura Holdings Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 354.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,777 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 15,425 shares during the quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Pentair were worth $1,438,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $834,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,908,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Pentair by 82.8% in the 4th quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,844 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 5,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pentair by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 126,437 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,193,000 after purchasing an additional 1,813 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PNR. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Pentair from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Pentair from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Pentair from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Pentair from $85.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.93.

Pentair Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $79.59 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $57.18 and a 1 year high of $85.84. The company has a market capitalization of $13.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $80.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.07.

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

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. Pentair’s payout ratio is currently 24.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pentair news, CEO Jerome O. Pedretti sold 24,747 shares of Pentair stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.45, for a total value of $2,089,884.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 38,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,254,534.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.