As the market has sold off, insiders are starting to take advantage of lower prices. We are not yet at a level  where insiders are full throated buyers but several are willing to bet sizable sums of money. Panic is around the corner but not here yet. We outline the most notable ones below.

Buys

MHK Mowhak Industries  Billionaire Filip Balcaen continues to bet on global carpet manufacturer Mohawk Industries.  It’s nice to have the luxury of waiting out market anxieties.

UAL United Airlines Dir Edward Shapiro is batting 1000 when he purchased 30,000 at $92.57.  I personally think Southwest is a better long-term bet as it has an immeasurably better balance sheet as it alone among the major airlines owns outright its fleet as opposed to taking on debt to purchase it.  It also is a purely domestic carrier and is somewhat insulated from an escalating tit for tat trade war with China.

AAT American Asset Trust is crushing the market. It’s hard to rationalize why a self storage REIT yielding just 2.8% is crushing the market but it is . Perhaps Director Nelles knows something we don’t but I can’t rationalize buying a million dollars worth  at a market high of $47.14.

The company’s retail portfolio comprises approximately 3.1 million rentable square feet, and its office portfolio comprises approximately 2.7 million square feet. In addition, the company owns one mixed-use property (including approximately 97,000 rentable square feet of retail space and a 369-room all-suite hotel) and 2,112 multifamily units.

TSE Trinseo S.A., Trinseo Director Zide bougth 20,000 shares at $51.17.  Chemical and plastic companies have gotten clobbered in this market correct. TSE is no exception. It’s a materials company, manufactures and markets synthetic rubber, latex binders, and plastic products in Europe, the United States, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through Latex Binders, Synthetic Rubbeqr, Performance Plastics, Basic Plastics, Feedstocks, and Americas Styrenics segments.

Yext Yext Inc.  This fast growing SEO and brand optimization company has had a tough slug this year. It’s possible that Chairman Walrath’s $1 million purchase at $15.39 can put a temporary floor in the slide.  We are a buyer of this name although still not profitable, Yext’s continuing revenue SAS model is attractive.

BKI Black Knight Inc.  The CEO Jabbour purchased $1 million worth at $45.17 increasing his holdings by 6.4%.  Black Knight, Inc. provides software, data, and analytics solutions to the mortgage and consumer loan, real estate, and capital market verticals primarily in the United States. It operates through two segments, Software Solutions, and Data and Analytics.  We purchased a small amount last week at an average price of $44.63

TTS Tile Shop Holdings   Insiders keep adding to the pain trade on this home improvement retailer. Director Kamin and Jaculio bought $1.3 million more of the beleaguered company last week at $5.90-$5.98.

ENR Energizer Holdings, Inc. CFO Gorman bought 10,000 at $45.64 of this battery king.

MTSC MTS Systems Corp Director Schrock bought 10,000 at $50.09. MTS Systems Corporation supplies test systems and sensors in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company’s Test segment offers road simulators and component test systems, vehicle performance test systems, vehicle dynamics simulators, electrical motors and energy recovery systems, tire performance and rolling resistance measurement systems, and moving ground-plane systems and balances.

AQUA Evoqua Water Technologies Four insiders bought $91.8 worth of stock at average prices of $8.51-$9.79. Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. provides a range of water and wastewater treatment systems and technologies, and mobile and emergency water supply solutions and services. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Municipal, and Products.

 

Sales

Nothing too out of the ordinary showed up last week in sales.  It’s become increasingly difficult to read the tea leaves regarding the $ millions of dollars of sales every week due to the proliferation of the Sarbanes Oxley era loophole of 10b5-1 trading plans.

IQV IQVIA Holdings Four insiders sold $929.8 million of IQV. IQVIA Holdings Inc. provides integrated information and technology-enabled healthcare services in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Commercial Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Integrated Engagement Services. The Commercial Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation, real-world insights, and reference information services; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services.

CPT Camden Property Trust 3 insiders sold $14.5 million worth of this REIT yielding 3.31% Camden Property Trust, an S&P 400 Company, is a real estate company engaged in the ownership, management, development, redevelopment, acquisition, and construction of multifamily apartment communities. Camden owns interests in and operates 159 properties containing 54,480 apartment homes across the United States. Upon completion of 8 properties currently under development, the Company’s portfolio will increase to 56,858 apartment homes in 167 properties.

HSIC Henry Schein INC Three insiders sold $8.6 million at $86.32 to $90.06. Henry Schein, Inc. provides health care products and services to dental practitioners and laboratories, animal health clinics, physician practices, government, institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care clinics worldwide.

SO Southern Co. Three insiders sold $2.8 million worth of this widely held utility yielding 5.11.  This one is a bit of a head scratcher as that’s a pretty good yield in a safe stock.

In this report, we examined open market purchases from employees  and directors ending the week of October 5 2018. Insiders sell stock for many reasons, but they generally buy for just one – to make money.  As a standard, we only look at material amounts of money, $200 thousand or more, as anything less could just be window dressing. The bar is different with selling, because the natural state of management is to be sellers. This is because most companies provide significant amounts of management compensation packages as stock. Therefore, with selling, we analyze for unusual patterns, such as insiders selling 25 percent or more of their holdings or multiple insiders selling near 52 week lows.Another red flag are large planned sale programs that start without warning. We generally ignore 10 percent 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 of the vast realms of data.
To learn more about our strategy, visit our website here. 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.