Short Interest in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Decreases By 27.0%

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,330,000 shares, a decrease of 27.0% from the March 31st total of 4,560,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,700,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PNR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $91.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.93.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PNR traded up $0.76 during trading on Friday, hitting $79.96. 959,329 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,557,437. The company has a market cap of $13.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $80.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $71.89. Pentair has a 52-week low of $53.88 and a 52-week high of $85.81.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its earnings results 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. Pentair had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 20.16%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pentair will post 4.23 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair’s payout ratio is 24.47%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pentair

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 46,290 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Pentair by 1.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 204,416 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its stake in Pentair by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 450,602 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,763,000 after buying an additional 108,560 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in Pentair by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,299,000 after buying an additional 27,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in Pentair during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $566,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

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.