Welcome to edition 388 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased last week with insiders purchasing $169.97 million of stock compared to $145.74 million in the week prior. Selling decreased with insiders selling $3 billion of stock last week compared to $3.47 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 dropped to 17.64. In other words, insiders sold almost 18 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favourably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 23.79.
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. General Electric Company (GE): $18.19
Shares of General Electric were acquired by 2 insiders:
These purchases follow a $1.1 million purchase by the new CEO of GE in the week prior. The purchase represents nearly half his annual base salary. Former CEO Jeff Immelt also made several million dollar plus purchases at much higher prices but that didn’t do much for the stock.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for General Electric Company here.
P/E: 22.16 | Forward P/E: 15.68 | Industry P/E: 19.43 |
P/S: 1.33 | Price/Book: 2.12 | EV/EBITDA: 16.75 |
Market Cap: $157.75B | Avg. Daily Volume: 71,975,730 | 52 Week Range: $17.46 – $32.38 |
2. Prospect Capital Corporation (PSEC): $6.8
Chief Executive Officer John F. Barry acquired 2,039,269 shares of this business development company, paying $6.94 per share for a total amount of $14.14 million. Mr. Barry increased his stake by 8.42% to 26,262,799 shares with this purchase.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Prospect Capital Corporation here.
P/E: 13.60 | Forward P/E: N/A | Industry P/E: 14.82 |
P/S: 4.19 | Price/Book: 0.74 | EV/EBITDA: 13.33 |
Market Cap: $2.451B | Avg. Daily Volume: 3,902,788 | 52 Week Range: $5.51 – $9.58 |
3. Genesis Energy, L.P. (GEL): $21.58
Shares of this oil & gas pipelines company were acquired by 2 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Genesis Energy, L.P. here.
P/E: 22.27 | Forward P/E: 14.1 | Industry P/E: 33.98 |
P/S: 0.5 | Price/Book: 1.22 | EV/EBITDA: 13.59 |
Market Cap: $851.38M | Avg. Daily Volume: 613,498 | 52 Week Range: $20.59 – $37.88 |
4. Drive Shack Inc. (DS): $5.94
Director Wesley R. Edens acquired 482,697 shares of this operator of golf related properties, paying $6.00 per share for a total amount of $2.89 million. Mr. Edens increased his stake by 21.41% to 2,737,094 shares with this purchase.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Drive Shack Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: 14.49 | Industry P/E: 59.7 |
P/S: 1.36 | Price/Book: 2.89 | EV/EBITDA: 91.26 |
Market Cap: $397.76M | Avg. Daily Volume: 549,801 | 52 Week Range: $2.41 – $6.2 |
5. Entercom Communications Corp. (ETM): $12
Shares of this radio broadcasting company were acquired by 2 insiders:
Entercom Communications recently merged with the radio division of CBS. Sometimes these kinds of mergers can have a transformative impact on a small company as we saw with the merger of Interval Leisure Group with the Vistana division of Starwood Hotels.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Entercom Communications Corp. here.
P/E: 26.91 | Forward P/E: 10 | Industry P/E: 25.05 |
P/S: 1.05 | Price/Book: 1.26 | EV/EBITDA: 9.74 |
Market Cap: $488.76M | Avg. Daily Volume: 3,182,944 | 52 Week Range: $9.45 – $16.55 |
You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.
Notable Insider Sales:
1. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): $96.62
Director Robson S. Walton sold 5,992,259 shares of Wal-Mart for $97.16, generating $582.22 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. here.
P/E: 23.21 | Forward P/E: 20.87 | Industry P/E: 37.09 |
P/S: 0.59 | Price/Book: 3.79 | EV/EBITDA: 9.27 |
Market Cap: $288.62B | Avg. Daily Volume: 9,064,265 | 52 Week Range: $65.28 – $100.13 |
2. Paylocity Holding Corporation (PCTY): $48.22
Director Steven I. Sarowitz sold 1,296,142 shares of this payroll and HCM software company for $46.14, generating $59.8 million from the sale. 559,297 of these shares were sold indirectly by the Julian Grace Foundation.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Paylocity Holding Corporation here.
P/E: 401.83 | Forward P/E: 43.84 | Industry P/E: 32.8 |
P/S: 8.44 | Price/Book: 16.9 | EV/EBITDA: 126.72 |
Market Cap: $2.53B | Avg. Daily Volume: 242,493 | 52 Week Range: $29.69 – $53.96 |
3. Splunk Inc. (SPLK): $84.1
Shares of this application software company were sold by 3 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Splunk Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: 102.56 | Industry P/E: 32.8 |
P/S: 10.97 | Price/Book: 15.32 | EV/EBITDA: -30.13 |
Market Cap: $11.77B | Avg. Daily Volume: 1,850,490 | 52 Week Range: $50.64 – $84.88 |
4. Cerner Corporation (CERN): $70.57
Chairman and Interim CEO Clifford W. Illig sold 530,000 shares of this healthcare information technology supplier for $65.54, generating $34.73 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Cerner Corporation here.
P/E: 35.66 | Forward P/E: 27.14 | Industry P/E: 31.35 |
P/S: 4.79 | Price/Book: 5.37 | EV/EBITDA: 15.72 |
Market Cap: $23.46B | Avg. Daily Volume: 2,287,415 | 52 Week Range: $47.01 – $73.86 |
5. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $182.78
Shares of Facebook were sold by 4 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Facebook, Inc. here.
P/E: 40.91 | Forward P/E: 27.61 | Industry P/E: 32.92 |
P/S: 16.01 | Price/Book: 7.97 | EV/EBITDA: 26.61 |
Market Cap: $531.12B | Avg. Daily Volume: 14,730,585 | 52 Week Range: $114 – $183.15 |
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.
Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/asifsuria or follow me on Twitter @asifsuria