Insider Weekends – Director of Restaurant Brands International Acquires $25 Million Worth of Stock

  • November 19, 2017

Welcome to edition 387 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased last week with insiders purchasing $145.74 million of stock compared to $101.35 million in the week prior. Selling almost tripled with insiders selling $3.47 billion of stock last week compared to $1.22 billion in the week prior.

There were several interesting insider purchases that did not make our notable insider buys list and I have captured some of them in a Twitter moment that you can check out here.

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 23.79. In other words, insiders sold almost 24 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavourably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 12.04.

Insider Sell Buy Ratio November 17, 2017
Insider Sell Buy Ratio November 17, 2017

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. Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR): $64.93

Director Paul J. Fribourg acquired 384,024 shares of this operator of Burger King and Tim Hortons, paying $65.10 per share for a total amount of $24.99 million.

These shares were purchased indirectly by a corporation of which Mr. Fribourg is the Chairman and CEO. Mr. Fribourg is the Chairman and CEO of privately held company Continental Grain and is on the board of directors of private equity firm Apollo Global. He also serves on the boards of Estee Lauder and Loews Corporation. He has served on QSR’s board since December 2014 and on Burger King’s board from October 2010 to December 2014.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Restaurant Brands International Inc. here.

P/E: 45.44Forward P/E: 24.41Industry P/E: 51.2
P/S: 6.9Price/Book: 7.98EV/EBITDA: 12.28
Market Cap: $29.83BAvg. Daily Volume: 1,244,30952 Week Range: $46.02 – $68.89

2. Sensata Technologies Holding N.V. (ST): $47.81

Director Paul B. Edgerley acquired 200,000 shares of this sensors and controls manufacturer, paying $47.47 per share for a total amount of $9.49 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Sensata Technologies Holding N.V. here.

P/E: 28.63Forward P/E: 13.78Industry P/E: 17.22
P/S: 2.54Price/Book: 3.91EV/EBITDA: 13.43
Market Cap: $8.2BAvg. Daily Volume: 863,78752 Week Range: $36.48 – $50.83

3. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (XRAY): $67.55

Shares of this dental products company were acquired by 2 insiders:

  • Interim Chief Executive Officer Mark Thierer acquired 77,000 shares, paying $66.04 per share for a total amount of $5.08 million. Mr. Thierer increased his stake by 182.16% to 119,270 shares with this purchase.
  • EVP, CFO Nicholas W. Alexos acquired 50,000 shares, paying $65.85 per share for a total amount of $3.29 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

Dentsply Sirona was created in 2016 when DENTSPLY, a company that traces its roots back to Dentists’ Supply Company founded in 1899 in New York City, merged with Sirona, which was founded in 1877 in Erlangen, Germany. As is usually the case with most mergers the synergies didn’t happen as quickly as expected nor at the optimistic level assumed during the merger.

The fallout from this merger has seen most of the executive team removed from the company with the Chairman, CEO and President all resigning on October 2nd. The CFO announced his resignation effective November 10th, and Mr. Alexon took over as CFO. Mr. Thierer has been appointed interim CEO with a six month term until the company finds a permanent replacement.

New executives often purchase stock either because they are required to hold a certain amount of stock in the company or because they want to signal the market.

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

P/E: N/AForward P/E: 22.98Industry P/E: 51.22
P/S: 4.04Price/Book: 2.13EV/EBITDA: 18.7
Market Cap: $15.52BAvg. Daily Volume: 2,045,15752 Week Range: $52.54 – $67.95

4. G1 Therapeutics, Inc. (GTHX): $20.75

Director Fredric N. Eshelman acquired 250,000 shares of this clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, paying $19.73 per share for a total amount of $4.93 million.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for G1 Therapeutics, Inc. here.

P/E: N/AForward P/E: -8.98Industry P/E: 197.02
P/S: N/APrice/Book: 4.75EV/EBITDA: -10.16
Market Cap: $588.16MAvg. Daily Volume: 126,00652 Week Range: $12.04 – $28.67

5. AT&T Inc. (T): $34.51

Director Geoffrey Y. Yang acquired 92,423 shares of AT&T, paying $37.87 per share for a total amount of $3.5 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by a family limited partnership.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for AT&T Inc. here.

P/E: 16.22Forward P/E: 11.78Industry P/E: 41.96
P/S: 1.31Price/Book: 1.7EV/EBITDA: 6.74
Market Cap: $211.86BAvg. Daily Volume: 33,246,33152 Week Range: $32.55 – $43.03

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $179

Shares of Facebook were sold by 4 insiders:

  • Director Jan Koum sold 594,246 shares for $179.35, generating $106.58 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
  • COB and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 238,715 shares for $178.03, generating $42.49 million from the sale. These shares were sold indrectly through various entities.
  • Chief Technology Officer Michael Todd Schroepfer sold 38,043 shares for $178.25, generating $6.78 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
  • VP and General Counsel Colin Stretch sold 750 shares for $177.68, generating $133,261 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 Facebook, Inc. here.

P/E: 40.06Forward P/E: 27.04Industry P/E: 32.41
P/S: 15.68Price/Book: 7.81EV/EBITDA: 26.61
Market Cap: $520.14BAvg. Daily Volume: 14,740,39652 Week Range: $114 – $182.9

2. Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET): $233.82

President and CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 146,063 shares of this networking solutions provider for $223.11, generating $32,59 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by various trusts.

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

P/E: 60.34Forward P/E: 38.33Industry P/E: 16.73
P/S: 12.58Price/Book: 12.48EV/EBITDA: 45.26
Market Cap: $17.09BAvg. Daily Volume: 736,79852 Week Range: $87.33 – $234.63

3. The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW): $44.68

Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 550,000 shares of this investment brokerage and asset management company for $44.52, generating $24.49 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for The Charles Schwab Corporation here.

P/E: 28.46Forward P/E: 22.8Industry P/E: 22.29
P/S: 7.18Price/Book: 3.32EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $59.9BAvg. Daily Volume: 6,067,17952 Week Range: $37.16 – $46.21

4. Snap Inc. (SNAP): $12.99

Shares of this camera company were sold by 3 insiders:

  • Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel sold 1,652,966 shares for $12.42, generating $20.53 million from the sale.
  • Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan sold 150,000 shares for $12.46, generating $1.87 million from the sale.
  • Director Mitchell Lasky sold 25,000 shares for $12.53, generating $313,193 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.

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

P/E: N/AForward P/E: -22.79Industry P/E: 32.12
P/S: 25.02Price/Book: 4.33EV/EBITDA: -4.37
Market Cap: $15.64BAvg. Daily Volume: 26,384,15752 Week Range: $11.28 – $29.44

5. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (LYV): $45.34

Shares of this general entertainment company were sold by 2 insiders:

  • President & CEO Michael Rapino sold 420,000 shares for $45.08, generating $18.93 million from the sale.
  • Chief Operating Officer Joe Berchtold sold 40,000 shares for $45.47, generating $1.82 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. here.

P/E: 6Forward P/E: 105.44Industry P/E: 73.33
P/S: 1.02Price/Book: 7.58EV/EBITDA: 14.33
Market Cap: $9.38BAvg. Daily Volume: 1,704,73552 Week Range: $26.41 – $46.33

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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