Insider Weekends – February 25, 2011

Welcome to edition thirty eight of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased last week with insiders purchasing $36.86 million of their stock when compared to $33.13 million in the week prior. Selling on the other hand dropped with insiders selling $895.43 million worth of stock when compared to $2.14 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 buying in that week. The adjusted ratio for last week dropped sharply to 24.29. In other words, insiders sold more than 24 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the week prior when the ratio stood at 64.53. We are calculating an adjusted ratio by removing transactions by funds and companies and trying as best as possible only to retain information about insiders and 10% owners who are not funds or companies.

Note: As mentioned in the first post in this series Introduction to Insider Weekends, 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. Lorillard, Inc. (LO): $77.19

Chairman, President and CEO Murray S. Kessler acquired 12,500 shares of this cigarettes company, paying $79.07 per share for a total amount of $988,376. Mr. Kessler increased his stake by 15.59% to 92,657 shares with this purchase.

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

2. Noble Energy, Inc. (NBL): $89.19

Director William Van Kleef acquired 10,000 shares of this oil & gas exploration company, paying $87.94 per share for a total amount of $879,450. Mr. Van Kleef increased his stake by 22.94% to 53,583 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Noble Energy here.

3. Rex Energy Corporation (REXX): $12.59

Shares of this oil & gas exploration company were acquired by 6 insiders:

• Director Lance T. Shaner acquired 44,325 shares, paying $11.73 per share for a total amount of $519,787. Mr. Shaner increased his stake by 0.62% to 7,244,383 shares with this purchase.
• Director John W. Higbee acquired 3,000 shares, paying $11.62 per share for a total amount of $34,860. Mr. Higbee increased his stake by 12.06% to 27,870 shares with this purchase.
• Director John A. Lombardi acquired 2,000 shares, paying $11.75 per share for a total amount of $23,500. Mr. Lombardi increased his stake by 16.85% to 13,870 shares with this purchase.
• Exec. VP and COO Patrick M. Mckinney acquired 1,000 shares, paying $11.31 per share for a total amount of $11,314. Mr. Mckinney increased his stake by 1.40% to 72,531 shares with this purchase.
• Sr. VP of Exploration David E. Pratt acquired 1,000 shares, paying $11.55 per share for a total amount of $11,550. Mr. Pratt increased his stake by 2.08% to 49,124 shares with this purchase.
• Exec. VP and CFO Thomas Charles Stabley acquired 1,000 shares, paying $11.50 per share for a total amount of $11,500. Mr. Stabley increased his stake by 0.17% to 576,401 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Rex Energy here.

4. MFA Financial, Inc. (MFA): $8.45

Senior VP and General Counsel Timothy W. Korth acquired 20,000 shares of this mortgage REIT, paying $25.51 per share for a total amount of $510,214. Mr. Korth increased his stake by 2000% to 21,000 shares with this purchase.

This was a purchase of the 8.5% Series A Preferred Stock and not the common stock.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for MFA Financial here.

5. Star Gas Partners LP (SGU): $5.44

Director Sheldon B. Lubar acquired 121,990 shares of this retail oil and gas company, paying $5.43 per share for a total amount of $662,875.

These shares were acquired indirectly through family funds.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Star Gas Partners here.

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Sara Lee Corp. (SLE): $17

Director Jeffrey W. Ubben sold 7,208,299 shares of this packaged food products company for $17.01, generating $122,632,577 from the sale.

These shares were sold indirectly through ValueAct Capital Master Fund, L.P.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Sara Lee here.

2. Franklin Resources Inc. (BEN): $124.94

Chairman of the Board Charles B. Johnson sold 400,000 shares of this asset management company for $126.68, generating $50.67 million from the sale.

Half of these shares were sold from Mr. Johnson’s IRA.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Franklin Resources here.

3. Intuit Inc. (INTU): $52.4

Shares of this software company were sold by 3 insiders:

• Chairman of Exec. Committee Scott D. Cook sold 500,000 shares for $52.91, generating $26.45 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through trusts.
• EVP, Small Business Group Kiran M. Patel sold 100,000 shares for $52.90, generating $5.3 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Director William V. Campbell sold 100,000 shares for $52.90, generating $5.29 million 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 Intuit here.

4. Google Inc. (GOOG): $610.04

CEO, Chairman of the Board Eric E. Schmidt sold 44,557 shares of Google for $616.05, generating $27.45 million from the sale.

These shares were sold through various trusts, family foundations and limited partnerships. 33,177 of these shares sold were related to the conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock.

While Google’s founders sell stock on a regular basis, this is the first time since October 2007 that Mr. Schmidt has sold Google stock. Eric Schmidt is set to step down as CEO on April 4 and founder Larry Page will take over the CEO role.

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

5. Perrigo Co. (PRGO): $75.91

Shares of this drug and nutritional products company were sold by 3 insiders:

• Director Moshe Arkin sold 256,126 shares for $75.46, generating $19.33 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by Nichsei Arkin Ltd.
• President and CEO Joseph C. Papa sold 21,000 shares for $74.99, generating $1.57 million from the sale. 15,000 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Executive VP & CFO Judy L. Brown sold 2,000 shares for $75.84, generating $151,682 from the sale.

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

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