New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 30,000 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 26.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 83,396 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 30,000 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.05% of Pentair worth $7,295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 229.1% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 786,362 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $68,791,000 after purchasing an additional 547,419 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Pentair by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,962,263 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $197,482,000 after purchasing an additional 428,184 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,101,253 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $614,030,000 after acquiring an additional 396,581 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Pentair during the fourth quarter worth $36,568,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pentair by 37.0% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,283,164 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $129,137,000 after acquiring an additional 346,843 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on PNR. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Pentair from $125.00 to $102.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Pentair from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $90.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Pentair from $114.00 to $107.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Baird R W raised shares of Pentair from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $95.00 target price on shares of Pentair and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $109.43.

Pentair Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:PNR traded down $0.71 during trading on Friday, reaching $105.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,947,844 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,448,054. The firm's fifty day moving average is $101.05 and its 200 day moving average is $95.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.89. Pentair plc has a 52 week low of $74.25 and a 52 week high of $110.71. The stock has a market cap of $17.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.09.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.38 million. Pentair had a net margin of 15.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.94%. Pentair's payout ratio is 25.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pentair news, Director David A. /Wi Jones sold 6,558 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.94, for a total transaction of $589,826.52. Following the transaction, the director owned 26,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,366,591.22. This represents a 19.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

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.