Welcome to edition 102 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased with insiders purchasing $148.9 million of their stock last week compared to $83.2 million in the week prior. Selling also increased with insiders selling $1.3 billion worth of stock last week compared to $844.3 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 dropped down to 8.8. In other words, insiders sold nearly 9 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the week prior when the ratio stood at 10.2. 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.
Insider buying has rebounded significantly and the Insider Sell/Buy ratio went from a peak of 174.2 to just 8.8 over a three week period. We wrote the following three weeks ago,
“The adjusted ratio for last week shot up to 174.2. In other words, insiders sold more than 174 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the week prior when the ratio stood at 25.1. Part of this big jump has to do with Bill Gates selling $385.4 million worth of Microsoft stock to most likely fund his foundation buy even excluding that sale, the ratio would have been 125.5.
Interestingly the last time the ratio was this high was almost a year ago on April 29, 2011 when the ratio spiked to 186.8. The S&P 500 dropped for six consecutive weeks from 1363.61 to 1270.98 following that spike.”