Zuckerman Investment Group LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Zuckerman Investment Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 307,978 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 51,550 shares during the period. Pentair makes up 3.1% of Zuckerman Investment Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $31,608,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 219.0% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,863,000 after buying an additional 415,163 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Pentair by 7.0% during the 4th 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 during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,568,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 67.4% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,390,000 after purchasing an additional 357,523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Pentair by 37.0% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,283,164 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $129,137,000 after purchasing an additional 346,843 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PNR. Robert W. Baird raised Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Baird R W raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.27.

Pentair Trading Up 10.4 %

NYSE PNR opened at $84.10 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $13.86 billion, a PE ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. Pentair plc has a 1-year low of $72.63 and a 1-year high of $110.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $90.30 and a 200-day moving average of $97.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

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

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.74%.

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.