Loudon Investment Management LLC Increases Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Loudon Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 28,736 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,631 shares during the quarter. Pentair makes up 1.3% of Loudon Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest position. Loudon Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Pentair were worth $2,089,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 935.1% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 383 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 82.4% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in Pentair by 97.6% during the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 409 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in Pentair by 112.7% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baystate Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Pentair in the third quarter worth $30,000. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PNR traded down $0.23 during trading on Thursday, reaching $78.84. 1,860,257 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,638,150. The stock has a market cap of $13.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.01, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $80.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $55.26 and a 12-month high of $85.81.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.04. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.16% and a net margin of 15.30%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.91 earnings per share. Pentair’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PNR has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, April 15th. 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. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Pentair in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $86.00 price target for the company. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Pentair from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.93.

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.