So what are insiders buying this week as the market crumbles?Surprisingly less than they did last week. In a sense, it was a relief as I log every insider buy over $200,000 and I could use a break to keep up. The most logical explanation is that we are well into the quarter blackout period where insiders are prohibited from purchasing their own stock before earnings are released. The other explanation is dire- they are even less confident about the future this week than last. I choose to believe the former. At any rate, I’m not going to highlight what I think is noteworthy and skip the majority of the buys. There are still plenty. I’ve highlighted it by day but bear in mind this can be off by as much as two days as the requirement to file the Form 4 is within 48 hours. Fortunes will be made here, no doubt, but the risk is also very high. Government missteps are more unpredictable than the virus itself.
Friday March 20th
ABBV AbbVi VP buys 3750 shares at $68.20. This is the first big pharma buy I’ve seen since the outbreak began.
CIT CIT Group two insiders purchased stock at $14.39-$14.69.
CNR Conerstone Bulding Two insiders purchased 185,000 shares between $3.79-$4
FDX FedEx Director bought $560k at $112.04
LCII LCI industries insiders continue to buy sizable amounts of this RV company. This is surprising to me as I would think discretionary spending collapses but the national parks are full as people escape crowded infected cities.
Thursday March 19th
AIRT Air T A director of this air freight company bought 39,396 shares at $11.26. There is a federal aid package coming but who knows the details of this?
BKI Black Knight CEO buys $649K at $57.30, a premier provider of innovative, high-performance software, data and analytics for mortgage and home equity lending and servicing industry.
CNK Cinemark Chairman buys $1.0 million at $7.94. Who is going to a movie theater anytime soon, yet as of Friday’s close he is up 30%.
XOM Exxon Mobil another VP buys $1 million at $33.80. Why is Donald Trump reluctant to put a tariff on Saudi Arabia dumping oil here and save our energy independence. Maybe the guys at Exxon want to shake out the weak hands. They have the balance sheet to last. Perhaps the Saudis have loans they can call on the Trump Empire? They will write a lot about this.
Lin Linde PLC, there are more than one insider buying, the latest is a director’s purchae of $545k at $160.31.
MRC Global two directors buying stock,, $1M and $200k at $3.83-$4 MRC Global is a leading global distributor of pipe, valve and fitting (PVF), products and services to the energy and industrial markets. Yikes.
OKE ONEOK Three insiders including Chairman and CEO buying this oil and gas infrastructure play between $13.06 and $14.85 per share.
PennyMac Financial PFSI CFO of this mortage lender bought $594.8 K at $16.60. Refinancing going through the roof but new loan orginations?
Simon Property Group director buys $589.8K Mall and outlet REIT.
Wednesday March 18th
ACIW ACI Worldwide CEO buys 30,440 shares at $24.29. ACI Worldwide delivers electronic banking and payment solutions for more than 5100 financial institutions, merchants, billers and processors around the world.
CBTX CBTX Inc Texas bank has three insiders buying in size from $18.94- $20.89. The political background for bank bailouts is toxic.
CNK Cinemark CEO buys $211Ke at $10.58. See the above buy for comments.
DX Dynex leveraged mortgage REIT director buys $1.2M at $11.49.
ET Energy Transfer LP purchases 100,000 at $4.95
EPD Enterprise Products CB $1.1M at $36.41
XOM Exxon Mobil VP buys $1.M at $36.41
MAC Macerich Mall REIT CEO buys $24kK at $9.95
PMT PennyMac Morgage two insiders stock buy at $6.55-7.23
PAGP Plains Group Holdings Three insiders buy oil and gas infrastructure play at $3.80-$5.82. Lots of buying in this sector. Hard to imagine they can all be wrong.
RHP Ryman Hospitality insiders show some confidence buying $444K and $231K worth of stock at $14.46- $15.42 You can be sure there is a bailout coming for the hotel industry, especially the ones that vote Republican. Think Trump Organization here. I’d wait a bit but they are already up huge at Friday close of $21.49
SPB Simon Property One of the largest buys we’ve seen as Herbert Simon bought $9.9 million at $52.69.
VMC Vulcan Director buys 5000 at $93. Think large public works projects coming once they send people back to work and the jobs are gone.
Tuesday March 17th
B Hedge fund manager Dir increases his stake 270% with a $3.2M buy at $21.02
AXS Axis Capital Holdings Director buys $20M at $39.94
CNK Cinermark Holdings Chairman buys $1M at $9.30
GLPI Gaming and Leisure Chairman buys $1M at $30.45
MELI MercadoLibre Dir buys $3.1M at $522.22
PSN Parsons Director buys $502.6K of this government contractor.
SPG Simpon Property Group buys $9.1M at $60.83
Monday March 16th
AXO Autozone Dir buys $1.8M at$886
BPYU Brookfield Property two insiders buys $1.4M ant $496K of this mall REIT.
GEO Geo Group Chairman buys $1.2 M of private prison contractor at $11.65
HUBS HubSpot Director buys $5M at $124.02
NCR NCR four insiders buys stock from $17.63 to $17.71 with sizable purchases, the largest being the CEO at $1.1M
PNC Financial Director buys $2.5M at $94.92.
PSN Parsons two insiders buy stock from $28.60-$28.86 of this government contractor.
WFC Wells Fargo new CEO buys $5m at $28.69
Insiders sell stock for many reasons, but they generally buy for just one – to make money. THE INSIDERS FUND invests in companies at or near prices that management has been willing to invest significant amounts of their own money in. After all, who knows a business better than the people running it? You’ve always heard the best information is inside information. This is as close to “insider information” that an ordinary investor is likely to see- and it’s entirely legal. Officers, directors, and 10% owners are required to inform the public through a Form 4 Filing any transaction, buy, sell, exercise, or any other with 48 hours of doing so. This info is available for free from the SEC’s Web site, Edgar, although we subscribe to the Washington Service as they provide a way to manage and make sense of the vast realms of data.
As a rule, we only look at material amounts of money, $200 thousand or more, as anything less could just be window dressing. The bar is different from 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 is large planned sale programs that start without warning. Unfortunately, the public information disclosure requirements about these programs referred to as Rule 10b5-1 is horrendously poor. I also generally ignore 10 percent shareholders as they tend to be OPM (other people’s money) and perhaps not the smart money we are trying to read the tea leaves on.
Of course insiders can also be wrong about their Company’s prospects. They can easily be wrong about how much others will value them, and in many cases, maybe most cases have no more idea what the future may hold than you or I. In short, you can lose money following them. We have and we curse aloud, what were they thinking! Needless to say, past good fortune is no guarantee of future success. We may own positions, long or short, in any of these names and are under no obligation to disclose that. We welcome your comments on our analysis.
This blog is solely for educational purposes and the author’s own amusement. Investing with The Insiders Fund is for qualified investors and by Prospectus only. Nothing herein should be construed otherwise. To learn more about our strategy, visit our website. If you would like to hear more about how you can get involved with the Insiders Fund, please schedule some time on my calendar.
Prosperous Trading,
Harvey Sax
