Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 400 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,900 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Pentair were worth $896,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in Pentair by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,585 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 636 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Pentair during the 4th quarter worth approximately $989,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Pentair during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $479,000. FMR LLC increased its position in Pentair by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $557,860,000 after purchasing an additional 258,134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Pentair by 47.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 19,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,944,000 after acquiring an additional 6,391 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on PNR. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Pentair from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Pentair from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pentair has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.25.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE:PNR opened at $96.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $15.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $101.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.85. Pentair plc has a twelve month low of $72.63 and a twelve month high of $110.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Pentair Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. This is an increase from Pentair’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.74%.

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.