Insider Weekends – June 25, 2010

Welcome to the third edition of Insider Weekends. We saw an uptick in insider selling and a drop in insider buying last week.

Sell/Buy Ratio:

The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider buying in that week. The adjusted ratio for last week was 43.46. In other words, insiders sold more than 43 times as much stock as they purchased. We had a couple of big transactions last week that were stock offerings by insiders at Polo Ralph Lauren (RL) and Rubicon Technology (RBCN) that accounted for nearly 70% of all insider selling. The ratio drops to 13.32 if you remove these two transactions. However stock offerings like these where the company is not issuing new shares are just another form of insider selling and hence going forward I will not exclude these transactions. We are calculating an adjusted ratio by removing transactions by funds and trying as best as possible only to retain information about insiders and 10% owners who are not funds.

Notable Insider Buys Last Week:

1. Agilysys (AGYS) $7.37

Director Andrew Cueva acquired 70,065 shares of this IT services provider at an average price of $7.21 per share, paying $505,568.

Key Statistics:

2. Charming Shoppes (CHRS) $4.07

President and CEO James P. Fogarty acquired 125,000 shares of this plus size apparel retailer (Lane Bryant and Catherines Plus Sizes) at $3.75 per share, paying $468,625.

Key Statistics:

3. J. Crew Group (JCG) $39.20

Director James Coulter acquired 10,000 shares of this popular apparel retailer at $42 per share, paying $419,994.

Key Statistics:

4. Epicor Software Corporation (EPIC) $8.80

Director Richard Pickup picked  up 38,683 shares of this application software company at $8.38 per share, paying $324,268.

Key Statistics:

5. ProLogis (PLD) $11.16

CFO William E. Sullivan acquired 10,000 shares of this international industrial property REIT at $10.76 per share paying $107,550 and CEO C Walter Rakowich also acquired 20,000 shares at $10.76 per share, paying $215,200. While a 5.7% yield is not bad for a REIT, the company, like many other REITs, is highly leveraged and Moody’s recently placed its debt under review for a possible downgrade.

Key Statistics:

Unlike the first week we did this where all five top insider buys were trading below book value, this time around three out of the five are trading below book value. Please note that the book value reported on Yahoo Finance includes both intangibles and goodwill.

Notable Insider Sales Last Week:

1. The Home Depot (HD) $30.20

Director David Batchelder continued liquidating his position by selling an additional 1.17 million shares of this home improvement retailer generating $36.66 million at an average selling price of $31.23 per share. You might recall that he sold 4.08 million shares in the week prior.

Key Statistics:

2. Rubicon Technology (RBCN) $31.22

President, CEO and Director Raja Parvez sold 200,000 shares of this semiconductor company, generating $5.7 million at a selling price of $28.41 per share in a stock offering. Mr. Parvez essentially sold his entire position in the company through the offering. CFO William Weissman sold 100,000 shares, generating $2.84 million at a selling price of $28.41 per share. Directors Donald Caldwell, Michael Mikolajczyk, Raymond Spencer and Don Aquilano also sold 534,000 shares in aggregate for a total amount of $15.17 million at a selling price of $28.41 per share.

Key Statistics:

3. Greif (GEF) $57.22

Chairman and CEO Michael Gasser sold 49,148 shares of this packaging & containers company, generating $2.8 million at a selling price of $56.89 per share. Sr. VP – Strategic Projects Ronald Brown sold 22,324 shares, generating $1.33 million at a selling price of $60 per share. CFO Donald Huml sold 20,000 shares, generating $1.2 million at a selling price of $58.93 per share and Director David Gunsett sold 4,000 shares, generating $227,720 at a selling price of $56.93 per share.

Key Statistics:

4. AvalonBay Communities (AVB) $100.72

President Timothy Naughton sold 48,220 shares of this apartment REIT, generating $5.1 million at a selling price of $104.75 per share. After picking AvalonBay as the subject of my first special report last year and selling it for a gain of nearly 100% a few months ago, I have turned bearish on apartment REITs and currently hold September 2010 $22.5 puts in competitor Apartment Investment and Management Co. (AIV).

Key Statistics:

5. Illinois Tool Works (ITW) $44.16

Director Robert McCormack sold 108,400 shares of ITW, generating $5.04 million at a selling price of $46.52 per share

Key Statistics:

Contributing author: Ann Kumar