Pentair (NYSE:PNR) Stock Rating Upgraded by Baird R W

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) was upgraded by investment analysts at Baird R W from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also commented on PNR. Barclays upped their price target on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.27.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of Pentair stock opened at $90.02 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Pentair has a one year low of $72.63 and a one year high of $110.71. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $95.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Pentair by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $197,482,000 after purchasing an additional 428,184 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 219.0% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $60,863,000 after buying an additional 415,163 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Pentair by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $614,030,000 after acquiring an additional 396,581 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Pentair by 862.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,212,000 after acquiring an additional 395,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,568,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.