Short Interest in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Drops By 16.9%

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,010,000 shares, a decline of 16.9% from the November 15th total of 2,420,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,420,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $107.16 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $103.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $90.92. Pentair has a 12 month low of $68.08 and a 12 month high of $110.71.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 16.29%. The company had revenue of $993.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.53 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. Pentair’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Pentair will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pentair news, EVP Philip M. Rolchigo sold 3,588 shares of Pentair stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.67, for a total transaction of $357,615.96. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,916,853.44. The trade was a 15.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pentair

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Pentair by 376.1% in the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Pentair by 105.5% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Pentair during the 2nd quarter valued at $48,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Pentair by 165.2% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its holdings in Pentair by 4,450.0% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 637 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 623 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PNR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Pentair in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Pentair from $113.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.38.

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.