Some Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) shareholders may be a little concerned to see that the Executive VP, Stephen Pilla, recently sold a substantial US$707k worth of stock at a price of US$98.14 per share. That sale reduced their total holding by 32% which is hardly insignificant, but far from the worst we've seen.

View our latest analysis for Pentair

Pentair Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent sale by Stephen Pilla was the biggest sale of Pentair shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of US$92.94. We generally don't like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive).

The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: Most of them are flying under the radar).

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Pentair insiders own 0.4% of the company, worth about US$65m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Pentair Tell Us?

An insider sold Pentair shares recently, but they didn't buy any. And even if we look at the last year, we didn't see any purchases. But since Pentair is profitable and growing, we're not too worried by this. While insiders do own shares, they don't own a heap, and they have been selling. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. While conducting our analysis, we found that Pentair has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore these.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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