Merit Financial Group LLC Invests $221,000 in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,046 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Pentair by 191.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 70,424 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,122,000 after acquiring an additional 46,290 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Pentair during the fourth quarter worth approximately $69,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Pentair by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,287,364,000 after purchasing an additional 204,416 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Pentair by 31.7% in the fourth 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. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 468,605 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,072,000 after buying an additional 33,039 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on PNR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $91.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $86.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Pentair from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Pentair from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.93.

Pentair Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE PNR opened at $83.84 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Pentair plc has a 52 week low of $55.26 and a 52 week high of $85.81. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.08. The firm has a market cap of $13.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.24.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 earnings per share (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 business’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th will be given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.10%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.47%.

Pentair 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.