Should You Buy Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (PNR)?

Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR) was in 33 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. PNR has seen an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. There were 32 hedge funds in our database with PNR holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of methods market participants can use to track publicly traded companies. A couple of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are plenty of motivations for an upper level exec to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a gander at the latest action surrounding Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR).

Hedge fund activity in Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 33 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 3% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Larry Robbins’s Glenview Capital had the most valuable position in Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR), worth close to $207.4 million, comprising 2.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, which held a $92 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Joe DiMenna’s ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS.

Consequently, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Tremblant Capital, managed by Brett Barakett, created the largest position in Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR). Tremblant Capital had 23.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also made a $16.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PNR investors: Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors, and Daniel Arbess’s Xerion.

What have insiders been doing with Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR). These stocks are Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR), Pall Corporation (NYSE:PLL), Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS), Roper Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ROP), and Dover Corp (NYSE:DOV). All of these stocks are in the diversified machinery industry and their market caps are closest to PNR’s market cap.