Parker Hannifin started out in 1917 as Parker Appliance, selling pneumatic brakes. Through the acquisition of branded components, the firm has expanded into aerospace engines, agricultural and construction machinery, freight and passenger vehicles, and industrial automation equipment. Within these larger systems, Parker sells a wide array of small, critical pieces such as hydraulic, electromechanical, climate control, and filtration components. Many of its products are designed to work together, resulting in a high rate of cross-selling.

AI is helping companies in the Industrial sector, and those same companies are helping AI. We hear a lot of talk about the technology supporting AI (such as data centers and high-speed chips). For its part, the Industrial sector is full of names supporting AI growth by supplying the energy, infrastructure, transport, and construction needed to build out new AI-focused facilities. Meanwhile, Industrial companies are harnessing AI technology to help with processes, inventory control, and supply-chain management, and many other functions. Indeed, Industrial companies are using smart robots to manage and work production lines at manufacturing facilities, while AI also is helping to make front and back offices operate more efficiently and cost effectively. We are running a five-part webinar series on AI, looking at how different industries are incorporating AI practices. We just hosted our fourth edition, spotlighting the Industrial sector. For our list this week, we are presenting the cheat sheet from the webinar – with the BUY-rated Industrial stocks we highlighted during the webinar.

Parker Hannifin manufactures motion and control technologies and systems that are used to control fluids, gas, or air in hydraulic, pneumatic and vacuum applications. It sells its products to aerospace, commercial, and industrial customers, who use them to move materials and operate machines and vehicles. The company employs approximately 58,000 people. PH shares are a component of the S&P 500.

Stocks continue to battle, but ultimately weather quite nicely, a volatile news flow. The bottom line is that (as of last week) the S&P 500 is up 5.6% year to date, the Nasdaq is up 8.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 2.9%. Insiders, meanwhile, are not bailing on stocks at all-time highs, but nor are they jumping in to buy aggressively. Indeed, the major overall sell/buy ratios from Vickers Stock Research show insider sentiment that is solidly neutral. In the short-term (using one-week data), part of this can be attributed to earnings season, when insiders are broadly prohibited from trading. But the data in the longer-term window (eight weeks) for insider sentiment has caught our eye. Looking at Vickers' eight-week sell/buy ratios on a sector basis, we note growing bullishness. Back at the end of March, five sectors logged neutral ratios, four were bullish, and two were bearish. Today, eight sectors are bullish, two are bearish, and only one is neutral. Drilling down, long-term bullish activity is now apparent in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Financial, Healthcare, Industrial, Materials, Real Estate, and Utility sectors. Within this grouping, two sectors are newly bullish, with the Materials and Utility sectors moving from neutral to bullish since last week. Elsewhere, the Energy sector has improved from bearish to neutral week over week. From a shorter-term perspective, Communication Services has maintained a bullish one-week sell/buy ratio for two weeks. Should this improvement have legs, the sector may well flip to a long-term bullish stance. This week, analysts at Vickers highlighted insider transactions of interest at BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) and Adobe Inc. (NGS: ADBE).