Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 2.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 212,710 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,127 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.13% of Pentair worth $11,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Pentair by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,246,330 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $781,978,000 after purchasing an additional 186,726 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in Pentair by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 14,182,012 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $636,945,000 after purchasing an additional 365,840 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Pentair by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,611,971 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $431,164,000 after purchasing an additional 443,034 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Pentair by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,346,517 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $344,045,000 after purchasing an additional 479,701 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Pentair by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 5,386,563 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $255,291,000 after buying an additional 367,956 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.60% of the company's stock.

PNR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Seaport Res Ptn reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, August 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Pentair from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Pentair from $63.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Pentair has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $69.20.

View Our Latest Report on PNR

In other Pentair news, CEO John L. Stauch sold 32,596 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.42, for a total value of $2,328,006.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 7,690 shares in the company, valued at approximately $549,219.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Pentair stock opened at $67.61 on Tuesday. Pentair plc has a 52 week low of $38.55 and a 52 week high of $71.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $66.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.16 billion, a PE ratio of 22.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.16.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. Pentair had a net margin of 11.82% and a return on equity of 22.39%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 3.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair plc provides various water solutions worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Pool, Water Solutions, Industrial & Flow Technologies. It designs, manufactures, and sells residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories, including pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for residential and commercial pool maintenance, repair, renovation, service, and construction applications; and water treatment products and systems comprising pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use systems for use in residential whole home water filtration, drinking water filtration, water softening solutions, commercial total water management and filtration, and foodservice operations.

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