Short Interest in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Decreases By 23.2%

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) saw a significant decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,420,000 shares, a decrease of 23.2% from the October 31st total of 3,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,430,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Pentair

In related news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total value of $357,615.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,916,853.44. This trade represents a 15.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pentair

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its stake in Pentair by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,585 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 636 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Pentair by 222.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 50,653 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,328,000 after purchasing an additional 34,959 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Pentair by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,146,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $87,885,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC bought a new stake in Pentair during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $631,000. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new stake in Pentair in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $572,000. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pentair Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $108.96 on Friday. Pentair has a 52 week low of $63.09 and a 52 week high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.60. The company has a market cap of $18.00 billion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.85.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $993.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $988.53 million. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. Pentair’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Pentair will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is 23.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $101.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Pentair from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Pentair from $106.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.38.

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.