A tighter focus boosts their prospects

Article Excerpt

One of the main benefits of a spinoff is that it lets both the parent and new company better focus on their core businesses. A good example is water equipment specialist Pentair, which spun off its electrical cabinet business nVent in April 2018. Since the breakup, nVent has gained 24%, while Pentair is down 11%. However, Pentair’s drop is largely because of its 2019 profit warning due to bad weather in key markets. We still feel both Pentair and nVent offer strong long-term potential. PENTAIR PLC $40 (New York symbol PNR; Manufacturing Sector; Shares outstanding: 171.4 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Dividend yield 1.8%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.pentair.com) has three divisions: Aquatic Systems (35% of its 2018 revenue) makes a variety of swimming pool equipment, including pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners and maintenance equipment; Filtration Solutions (34%) makes filtration equipment for water purification and sanitation systems; and Flow Technologies (31%) makes pumps for wells, water treatment plants and agricultural irrigation systems. …