$AMH,$NLY,$VRSK,$DXCM,$HAIN,$DS,$DISCK,$TEP,$CAKE,$CECE

$KEYW,$CHD,$IBKR,$HPQ,$COL,$MDSO,$ULTI,$CRM

In this report we examine stocks that C-level officers and directors  bought and sold ending the week of September 22nd, 2017.  Insiders sell stock for a variety of reasons but they generally buy for just one, to make money.  We only look at material amounts of money, $100k or more, as anything less could be window dressing.  The bar is different on selling as the natural state of management is to be sellers.  Most companies provide significant amounts of their compensation packages as stock. Therefore we analyze selling for unusual patterns; such as insider selling 25% or more of their holdings or multiple insiders selling near 52 wk. lows.  Another red flag is large planned sale programs that just start out of the blue.

We generally ignore 10% shareholders as they tend to be OPM (other people’s money) and not the SMART money we are trying to go to school on.  Although this info is available for free from the SEC’s Web site , Edgar, we subscribe to the Washington Service as they provide a way to manage and make sense from the realms of data. To learn more about our strategy visit our website at The Insiders Fund. We welcome your comments on our analysis. We may own positions long or short in any of these names and are under no obligation to disclose that-So do your own research.

 Buying

There wasn’t much buying as usual but we managed to eke out nice profits trading Hain Celestial HAIN and Cheesecake Factory CAKE. We still own HAIN as this is a very possible takeover candidate.  We enjoy eating at Cheesecake more than owning it long term. We sold DexCom DXCM too soon but valuations here are unsettling.  Discovery Communications DISK continues to be a value trap for us.

The bottom line is that we make money in a few select names while the majority of what we see is selling. Keep in mind that when you buy a low cost index fund, the costs are the least significant thing.  90% of the stocks in the index fund are being unloaded by management as fast as legally possible. That works well enough in a bull market but when it turns and you lose money on an index fund, just remember you were buying the very stocks that the people that know the business the best  were selling at a furious rate.

Selling

Rockwell Collins COL 9 insiders take advantage of record high stock prices to sell $75.3 million of stock and options, some not expiring for 7.5 more years.  The aerospace business has been good for COL but maybe its not quite as good going forward.

Medidata MDSO insiders unload $28.6 million of this fast growth cloud based life sciences solution company.  At almost 100 times trailing 12 months earnings, that might be a smart idea.

Ultimate Software Group ULTI Eight insiders sold $27 million worth of stock. Another cloud based human capital management company with a TTM P.E of 202. When does the bubble burst in the cloud?  Does it shower on the entire software sector? How does it impact the market?  I wish I knew.

Houlihan Looked HLI. Seven insiders dump $90.2 million worth of this investment banking company. Now this is the definition of insiders selling the market.

Salesforce CRM. Nothing unusual about 3 insiders unloading $8 million of this leading CRM company.  Too many tech companies use stock options like the US Government prints money.  One day this theft of shareholder property will come back to haunt with the adaption of GAAP accounting.  Stock options are real costs and its time for them to be treated like that.