Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Lowers Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lessened its position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 35,133 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 894 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Pentair were worth $3,536,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP increased its stake in Pentair by 105.5% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 753.8% in the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 144.9% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pentair in the fourth quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Pentair in the fourth quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on PNR. Barclays raised their target price on Pentair from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.93.

Pentair Price Performance

PNR stock opened at $87.44 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $95.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.74. Pentair plc has a 52-week low of $72.63 and a 52-week high of $110.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.