Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,130,000 shares, a decline of 39.3% from the June 30th total of 5,160,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,670,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Activity at Pentair

In other Pentair news, CEO Jerome O. Pedretti sold 24,747 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.45, for a total transaction of $2,089,884.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 38,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,254,534.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 82.4% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pentair during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Quent Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 112.7% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Pentair during the second quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, Rational Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 200.0% during the first quarter. Rational Advisors LLC now owns 633 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PNR. TD Cowen upped their price target on Pentair from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays upped their price target on Pentair from $90.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Pentair from $92.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.87.

Pentair Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE PNR traded up $2.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $88.50. The company had a trading volume of 1,736,455 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,654,663. The company has a market capitalization of $14.65 billion, a PE ratio of 23.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Pentair has a 1-year low of $57.18 and a 1-year high of $88.96. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.56.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.39% and a net margin of 16.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Pentair will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 19th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.47%.

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.