15 Small-Cap Manufacturing Stocks Hedge Funds Are Buying

3. Pentair (NYSE:PNR)

Market Capitalization as of April 25: $14.81 billion

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 49

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) provides water solutions. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products & systems. The Water Solutions segment offers commercial and residential water treatment products & systems. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment & accessories.

Total Sales in the company’s Pool segment increased by 7% year-over-year to $384 million in Q1 2025 due to a combination of price, volume, and the acquisition of G&F Manufacturing made in Q4 2024. The return on sales for the Pool segment expanded by 2% to 32.8%. Pentair anticipates continued positive momentum in the Pool segment.

For Q2 2025, the company expects Pool sales to be up in the mid-single digits. The overall strategy for Pentair (NYSE:PNR) involves driving incremental sales growth through value-based pricing and the 80/20 framework, which focuses on high-value core sales growth by serving the best customers. The company is actively pursuing transformation initiatives to drive margin expansion across all segments.

Impax Global Environmental Markets Fund stated the following regarding Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) (Water Distribution & Infrastructure, US) outperformed during the period. After weakness in Q2, driven by dour reports from other parts of its value chain, earnings released in July were better than expected. Guidance on the back of margin improvement from self-help initiatives (productivity, pricing and footprint rationalization initiatives) was also upbeat.”