Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Cuts Position in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its holdings in Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,000,056 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 81,725 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 1.21% of Pentair worth $201,286,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in Pentair by 219.0% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 604,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $60,863,000 after acquiring an additional 415,163 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of Pentair by 862.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 441,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,212,000 after purchasing an additional 395,962 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Pentair in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,568,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in Pentair by 67.4% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 888,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,390,000 after buying an additional 357,523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Pentair during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,748,000. 92.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PNR. Barclays lowered their price target on Pentair from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Pentair from $126.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Pentair from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Pentair from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Pentair in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.27.

Pentair Trading Down 8.6 %

NYSE PNR opened at $81.47 on Friday. Pentair plc has a 12 month low of $72.63 and a 12 month high of $110.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $93.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.61. 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 posted its 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. Pentair had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 20.94%. The firm had revenue of $972.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $970.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pentair plc will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Pentair Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Pentair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.74%.

Pentair 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.