Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the company. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.25.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE PNR opened at $85.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $14.03 billion, a PE ratio of 22.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $98.33 and a 200-day moving average of $98.74. Pentair has a 52-week low of $72.63 and a 52-week high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last released 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. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pentair will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of Pentair by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,585 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 636 shares during the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in Pentair during the fourth quarter worth about $989,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in Pentair in the third quarter worth about $479,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Pentair by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after acquiring an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Pentair by 47.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 19,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,944,000 after acquiring an additional 6,391 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.