Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 617 Shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its stake in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,814 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 617 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Pentair were worth $887,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PNR. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Pentair by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,756,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,257,000 after buying an additional 259,922 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pentair by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,704,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $557,860,000 after acquiring an additional 258,134 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Pentair by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,999,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $389,800,000 after acquiring an additional 19,853 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Pentair by 17.9% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,351,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $132,141,000 after acquiring an additional 205,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Pentair by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,010,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $101,653,000 after purchasing an additional 7,434 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on PNR shares. StockNews.com upgraded Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Pentair in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price 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. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.93.

Pentair Stock Performance

NYSE PNR opened at $87.44 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $95.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.74. The company has a market capitalization of $14.41 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.23. Pentair plc has a 1 year low of $72.63 and a 1 year high of $110.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $972.90 million for 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%. Pentair’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio 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.