Insider Weekends – Former Founders of Fluent Acquire Shares of Cogint

Welcome to edition 345 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased last week with insiders buying $33.94 million of stock compared to $32.72 million in the week prior. Nearly $30 million of insider buying was on account of a director of Heron Therapeutics (HRTX) participating in a secondary offering by the company, resulting in very few interesting insider purchases last week. Selling declined with insiders selling $614.39 million of stock last week compared to $425.47 million in the week prior.

Sell/Buy Ratio: The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week went up to 18.1. In other words, insiders sold more than 18 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 13.

Note: As mentioned in the first post in this series, certain industries have their preferred metrics such as same store sales for retailers, funds from operations (FFO) for REITs and revenue per available room (RevPAR) for hotels that provide a better basis for comparison than simple valuation metrics. However metrics like Price/Earnings, Price/Sales and Enterprise Value/EBITDA included below should provide a good starting point for analyzing the majority of stocks.

Notable Insider Buys:

1. Cogint, Inc. (COGT): $3.95

Shares of this data and analytics company were acquired by 3 insiders:

• Director Ryan Schulke acquired 165,000 shares, paying $3.22 per share for a total amount of $531,750. Mr. Schulke increased his stake by 2.80% to 6,064,537 shares with this purchase.
• 10% Owner Matthew Conlin acquired 100,000 shares, paying $3.15 per share for a total amount of $315,000.
• Director Robert Swayman acquired 50,000 shares, paying $3.12 per share for a total amount of $156,000. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

This is an interesting little company that has seen its revenue grow rapidly over the last four quarters and while the company is posting larger losses each quarter, free cash flow was positive for the last three quarters. The company’s top line growth was driven by its acquisition of New York based Fluent in Q4 2015. The two directors that acquired stock last week, Mr. Schulke and Mr. Conlin were co-founders of Fluent and Mr. Schulke served as its CEO.

Given the amount of stock acquired and the price at which it was acquired, these do not appear to be open market purchases except for the 15,000 shares Mr. Schulke acquired for $3.95 on January 26, 2017.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Cogint, Inc. here.

2. Dell Technologies Inc. (DVMT): $62.55

Chief Executive Officer Michael S. Dell acquired 14,807 shares of this VMWare tracking stock, paying $28.84 per share for a total amount of $427,034. Mr. Dell increased his stake by 5.16% to 301,927 shares with this purchase.

This purchase follows the nearly $7 million purchase by Mr. Dell that we highlighted two weeks ago.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Dell Technologies Inc. here.

3. Opko Health, Inc. (OPK): $8.69

CEO & Chairman Phillip Frost M.D. acquired 40,600 shares of this devices and drug development company, paying $8.54 per share for a total amount of $346,835. These shares were purchased indirectly by Frost Gamma Investments Trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Opko Health, Inc. here.

4. Comerica Incorporated (CMA): $69.11

Director Michael G. Van de Ven acquired 5,000 shares of this bank, paying $69.14 per share for a total amount of $345,677. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Comerica Incorporated here.

5. Zedge, Inc. (ZDGE): $3.27

Director Howard S. Jonas acquired 42,582 shares of this content distribution platform, paying $3.28 per share for a total amount of $139,498. Mr. Jonas increased his stake by 16.89% to 294,694 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Zedge, Inc. here.

You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.

Notable Insider Sales:

1. D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI): $30.94

Chairman Donald R. Horton sold 2,000,000 shares of this homebuilding company for $31.27, generating $62.55 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for D.R. Horton, Inc. here.

2. Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP): $154.59

Shares of this railroad were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chief Executive Officer Hunter E. Harrison sold 178,617 shares for $150.81, generating $26.94 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• VP Corp Affrs & Chief of Staff Mark Kenneth Wallace sold 11,990 shares for $150.92, generating $1.81 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Canadian Pacific Railway Limited here.

3. Webster Financial Corporation (WBS): $54.11

Shares of this regional bank were sold by 8 insiders:

• Chairman & Chief Executive Officer James Copenhaver Smith sold 100,284 shares for $54.42, generating $5.46 million from the sale.
• Director Michael C. Jacobi sold 41,910 shares for $54.55, generating $2.29 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• President John R. Ciulla sold 15,129 shares for $53.89, generating $815,332 from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• EVP-Chief Risk Officer Daniel Bley sold 13,671 shares for $51.74, generating $707,280 from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Director John Joseph Crawford sold 9,971 shares for $53.79, generating $536,306 from the sale. 4,971 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Executive Vice Chairman Joseph J. Savage sold 8,000 shares for $54.46, generating $435,653 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through the 401(k) filing.
• Director Mark Pettie sold 4,753 shares for $54.70, generating $259,989 from the sale.
• Chief Accounting Officer Gregory Madar sold 2,500 shares for $51.89, generating $129,715 from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Webster Financial Corporation here.

4. Apple Inc. (AAPL): $121.95

Chief Executive Officer Timothy D. Cook sold 60,000 shares of Apple for $120.75, generating $7.25 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Apple Inc. here.

5. PulteGroup, Inc. (PHM): $21.26

Director Richard J. Dugas Jr. sold 341,222 shares of this home builder for $20.78, generating $7.09 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for PulteGroup, Inc. here.

You can view the full list of sales from this Insider Sales page.

Disclaimer: Please do your own due diligence before buying or selling any securities mentioned in this article. We do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of the content or data provided in this article.

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