Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $727,000 in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 10,000 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $727,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PNR. Round Rock Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth about $313,000. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in Pentair in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $333,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in shares of Pentair by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 131,745 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pentair during the 4th quarter worth approximately $340,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 348,573 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $25,299,000 after buying an additional 27,122 shares during the last quarter. 92.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pentair Stock Performance

PNR stock traded up $0.76 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $79.96. 959,329 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,557,437. 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 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.10.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Pentair had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 20.16%. Pentair's revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Pentair plc will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pentair Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. Pentair's dividend payout ratio is 24.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Pentair from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Pentair from $85.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Pentair from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. BNP Paribas started coverage on Pentair in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $86.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Pentair from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target 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.