Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) Position Lowered by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR - Free Report) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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 approximately 0.19% of Pentair worth $23,431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 9.5% during the third quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,337 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in Pentair by 97.6% in the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 409 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Pentair by 47.8% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 28,858 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,869,000 after purchasing an additional 9,332 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in shares of Pentair by 4.5% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 34,900 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Pentair by 4.5% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 34,622 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,242,000 after buying an additional 1,479 shares during the period. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PNR. Bank of America upgraded shares of Pentair from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective 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 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Pentair from $83.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Pentair from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Pentair from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Five investment 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 presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $89.93.

Pentair Price Performance

Shares of PNR traded up $0.57 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $80.53. 1,416,920 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,639,866. Pentair plc has a one year low of $55.26 and a one year high of $85.81. The firm has a market cap of $13.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.42, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $80.45 and a 200-day moving average of $72.10.

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

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. Pentair's payout ratio is 24.47%.

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.