Insider Weekends – Directors of Mastech Purchase Stock

Welcome to edition 370 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying decreased last week with insiders buying $15.01 million of stock compared to $46.08 million in the week prior. Selling on the other hand increased with insiders selling $1.28 billion of stock last week compared to $490.44 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 85.25. In other words, insiders sold more than 85 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 10.64.

I went hiking to Carlon Falls in Yosemite this weekend and enjoyed a refreshing swim at the base of the falls on a hot summer afternoon. Equally enjoyable were the two podcasts I was listening to on my drive there and back. The two podcasts were “Masters in Business” interviews by Barry Ritholtz with Ed Thorp and noble laureate William Sharpe. The Ed Thorp interview was especially enjoyable as I am currently mid way through his book A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market. I highly recommend both these podcasts and Mr. Thorp’s book, which my business partner recently gifted to me.

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. Mastech Digital, Inc. (MHH): $8.82

Shares of this information technology (IT) staffing provider were acquired by 2 insiders:

• Director Sunil Wadhwani acquired 428,572 shares, paying $7.00 per share for a total amount of $3 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.
• Director Ashok Trivedi acquired 428,572 shares, paying $7.00 per share for a total amount of $3 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

While these appear to be open market purchases, the fact that both directors acquired the same number of shares for the same price leads me to believe otherwise. Mastech’s stock is up 25% since it announced on July 13th that it has acquired the services division of InfoTrellis, a Canadian Data Management & Analytics company.

Mastech paid $55 million to acquire this division, which is considerable considering Mastech’s market cap is less than $40 million even after the recent run up. The company used both equity and debt for this acquisition and it is possible that both these directors were participating in the equity offering by Mastech to raise capital for the acquisition.

We have seen certain stocks of small companies rise sharply after large or transformational acquisitions such as vacation time share company ILG (ILG) merger with Starwood Hotel’s Vistana division and Majesco’s merger with PolarityTE (COOL). Whether lightning strikes thrice remains to be seen.

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

2. Tile Shop Holdings, Inc. (TTS): $13.95

Director Peter H. Kamin acquired 159,000 shares of this home improvement products retailer, paying $14.43 per share for a total amount of $2.29 million. Mr. Kamin increased his stake by 52.81% to 460,058 shares with this purchase. These shares were purchased indirectly by various entities.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Tile Shop Holdings, Inc. here.

3. Lands’ End, Inc. (LE): $13.3

10% Owner Edward S. Lampert acquired 128,534 shares of this apparel retailer, paying $14.84 per share for a total amount of $1.73 million.

We normally don’t feature purchases by 10% owners but decided to make an exception in this case because of Mr. Lampert is the CEO of Sears Holdings (SHLD) and Land’s End was spun out of Sears in April 2014.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Lands’ End, Inc. here.

4. Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM): $52.13

Chief Executive Officer Thomson F. Leighton acquired 19,817 shares of this content delivery and cloud infrastructure company, paying $50.45 per share for a total amount of $999,768. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

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

5. AngioDynamics, Inc. (ANGO): $15.65

Shares of this medical devices company were acquired by 2 insiders:

• President and CEO James C. Clemmer acquired 25,000 shares, paying $15.67 per share for a total amount of $391,750. Mr. Clemmer increased his stake by 37.49% to 91,683 shares with this purchase.
• Director Howard W. Donnelly acquired 5,000 shares, paying $15.72 per share for a total amount of $78,600. Mr. Donnelly increased his stake by 11.74% to 47,600 shares with this purchase.

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

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $164.43

Shares of Facebook were sold by 3 insiders:

• Director Jan Koum sold 3,600,000 shares for $160.06, generating $576.2 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• Chief Product Officer Christopher K. Cox sold 16,000 shares for $164.28, generating $2.63 million from the sale.
• VP and General Counsel Colin Stretch sold 750 shares for $159.87, generating $119,906 from the sale.

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

2. ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW): $108.19

Director Frederic B. Luddy sold 102,000 shares of this software-as-a-service provider for $110.09, generating $11.23 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

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

3. Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT): $289.12

Shares of this defense company were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chairman, Pres. & CEO Marillyn A. Hewson sold 26,000 shares for $290.53, generating $7.55 million from the sale.
• SVP & General Counsel Maryanne Lavan sold 10,000 shares for $290.11, generating $2.9 million from the sale.

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

4. Workday, Inc. (WDAY): $102.64

Shares of this application software company were sold by 8 insiders:

• Chief Executive Officer Aneel Bhusri sold 11,091 shares for $102.70, generating $1.14 million from the sale.
• co-President Mark S. Peek sold 9,449 shares for $102.73, generating $970,710 from the sale.
• Director Michael A. Stankey sold 8,776 shares for $102.70, generating $901,291 from the sale.
• SVP, General Counsel & Secty James P. Shaughnessy sold 8,760 shares for $103.62, generating $907,671 from the sale. 631 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• COO & Executive Vice President James Bozzini sold 6,132 shares for $102.71, generating $629,828 from the sale.
• Chief Financial Officer Robynne Sisco sold 5,262 shares for $102.75, generating $540,670 from the sale.
• Co-President Philip W. Wilmington sold 5,148 shares for $102.77, generating $529,041 from the sale.
• Director David A. Duffield sold 3,997 shares for $102.69, generating $410,461 from the sale.

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

5. Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET): $152.92

Shares of this networking solutions provider were sold by 2 insiders:

• President and CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 22,763 shares for $157.81, generating $3.59 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various trusts.
• Chief Customer Officer Anshul Sadana sold 12,000 shares for $154.51, generating $1.85 million from the sale.

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

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

Disclaimer: I hold a long position in Workday (WDAY). 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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