Insider Weekends – Chairman of IDT Purchases $14.93 Million Worth of Stock

Happy Father’s Day and welcome to edition 365 of Insider Weekends. With this edition we complete seven continuous years of reporting on insider transactions. Insider buying edged up slightly last week with insiders buying $60.74 million of stock compared to $59.19 million in the week prior. Selling on the other hand declined with insiders selling $1.61 billion of stock last week compared to $2.08 billion 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 dropped to 26.53. In other words, insiders sold more than 26 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 35.11.

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. IDT Corporation (IDT): $15

Chairman of the Board Howard S. Jonas acquired 1,000,000 shares of this telecommunications company, paying $14.93 per share for a total amount of $14.93 million. Mr. Jonas increased his stake by 104.30% to 1,958,752 shares with this purchase. This was a Class B Treasury stock purchase and not an open market purchase.

Mr. Jonas also purchased $10 million worth of stock in April at an average price of $13.73 and we wrote the following after that purchase,

Looking through the history of Mr. Jonas’ sales, he has also been selling Class B Treasury stock. His children’s trusts were active sellers of the stock last year and this is the first insider purchase we have seen by Mr. Jonas since we started tracking insider transactions over six years ago.

The company appears cheap on certain valuation metrics, sports a dividend yield of 5.19% with a payout ratio of 49% and has a strong balance sheet. The top line has however been declining for several years and that might partially explain why the stock appears to be cheap.

As discussed towards the end of this post, Mr. Jonas also sold $3.27 million worth of Straight Path Communications (STRP) stock last week. Verizon Communications (VZ) won a bidding war against AT&T (T) to acquire Straight Path Communications in an all cash deal worth $184 per share. The original offer by AT&T for Straight Path earlier this year was $95.63 per share. I guess the insiders are not waiting around to capture the 2.75% spread on this deal (3.72% annualized) as you can see in our Merger Arbitrage Tool.

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

2. Revlon, Inc. (REV): $22.2

Director Ronald O. Perelman acquired 638,929 shares of this beauty care products company, paying $20.43 per share for a total amount of $13.06 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated and related entities.

This is the fourth time in the last six weeks that we have featured purchases of Revlon by Mr. Perelman. He has purchased $43.28 million worth of shares since the start of this year. We wrote the following in May after his first purchase this year,

Following this purchase Mr. Perelman’s holding company MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated owns nearly 80% of Revlon. The holding company acquired Revlon for $1.8 billion and incurred other acquisition related costs of $900 million in 1985. Revlon once again became a publicly traded company in 1996. The stock dropped sharply earlier this month after Revlon reported disappointing first quarter results with sales declining 5.8% and a net loss of $6.6 million (adjusting for Revlon’s acquisition of Elizabeth Arden).

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

3. American Assets Trust, Inc. (AAT): $40.06

Chairman, CEO & President Ernest S. Rady acquired 37,738 shares of this diversified REIT, paying $40.84 per share for a total amount of $1.54 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by American Assets, Inc.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for American Assets Trust, Inc. here.

4. Opko Health, Inc. (OPK): $6.53

CEO & Chairman Phillip Frost M.D. acquired 234,000 shares of this medical devices and drug development company, paying $6.43 per share for a total amount of $1.5 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Frost Gamma Investments Trust.

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

5. Avid Technology, Inc. (AVID): $5.03

Chairman & CEO Louis Hernandez Jr. acquired 278,100 shares of this multimedia & graphics software company, paying $4.99 per share for a total amount of $1.39 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by BD Capital Partners GP, LLC.

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

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): $75.24

Director Robson S. Walton sold 3,000,000 shares of Wal-Mart for $79.25, generating $237.76 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. here.

2. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $150.64

Shares of Facebook were sold by 3 insiders:

• COB and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 276,995 shares for $153.43, generating $42.49 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various entities.
• Chief Technology Officer Michael Todd Schroepfer sold 37,922 shares for $150.51, generating $5.71 million from the sale.
• VP and General Counsel Colin Stretch sold 750 shares for $150.25, generating $112,689 from the sale.

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

3. Installed Building Products, Inc. (IBP): $53.5

President, CEO and Chairman Jeffrey W. Edwards sold 600,000 shares for $52.50 of this residential insulation installer, generating $31.5 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by Installed Building Systems, Inc.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Installed Building Products, Inc. here.

4. Global Payments Inc. (GPN): $89.55

Shares of this provider of payment technology services were sold by 2 insiders:

• CEO Jeffrey Steven Sloan sold 153,453 shares for $89.20, generating $13.69 million from the sale. 50,000 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Director William I. Jacobs sold 600 shares for $90.00, generating $54,000 from the sale.

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

5. Straight Path Communications Inc. (STRP): $179.07

Shares of this communications asset company were sold by 3 insiders:

• Director Chris K. Todd sold 24,000 shares for $180.09, generating $4.32 million from the sale.
• Chief Technology Officer Zhouyue Pi sold 21,139 shares for $179.68, generating $3.79 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• 10% Owner Howard S. Jonas sold 18,217 shares for $179.76, generating $3.27 million from the sale.
• CEO & President Davidi Jonas sold 9,395 shares for $179.94, generating $1.69 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Straight Path Communications 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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