California Public Employees Retirement System Lowers Holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 322,259 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 16,931 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.19% of Pentair worth $23,431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PNR. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in Pentair in the 3rd quarter worth about $21,044,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Pentair by 228.1% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 373,082 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,127,000 after buying an additional 259,385 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in Pentair in the 3rd quarter worth about $14,763,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Pentair by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,882,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,287,364,000 after buying an additional 204,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in Pentair by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 9,897,479 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $718,440,000 after buying an additional 131,745 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Pentair Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:PNR opened at $79.96 on Monday. Pentair plc has a 12-month low of $53.88 and a 12-month high of $85.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $13.27 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $80.45 and a 200 day moving average of $72.10.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.04. Pentair had a return on equity of 20.16% and a net margin of 15.30%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. Pentair’s payout ratio is 24.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PNR. Bank of America raised Pentair from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Northcoast Research upgraded Pentair from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 15th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Pentair from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on Pentair from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas started coverage on Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $86.00 price target for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.93.

Pentair Company Profile

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.