Insider Weekends – September 27, 2013

Welcome to edition 171 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased with insiders purchasing $69.72 million of their stock last week compared to $10.86 million in the week prior. Selling also increased with insiders selling $1.32 billion of stock last week compared to $1.12 billion in the week prior. While the headline insider purchasing total has jumped up since last week’s anemic $10.86 million number, a majority of it was driven by a single large $59.46 million purchase of Synageva BioPharma (GEVA) by its director Felix Baker of the $4.4 billion biotech fund Baker Brothers. This purchase was related to a secondary offering by Synageva. It was interesting to see that four out of the five top purchases were by insiders in the oil & gas industry.

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 18.99. In other words, insiders sold about 19 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 102.75. 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, 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. Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT): $15.26

Director William E. Macaulay acquired 78,000 shares of this oil & gas drilling services company, paying $15.26 per share for a total amount of $1.19 million. Mr. Macaulay increased his stake by 8.32% to 1,015,314 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Weatherford International Ltd. here.

2. NuStar GP Holdings, LLC (NSH): $22.04

Director William E. Greehey acquired 50,000 shares of this oil & gas pipeline company, paying $20.55 per share for a total amount of $1.03 million. Mr. Greehey increased his stake by 0.62% to 8,075,479 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for NuStar GP Holdings, LLC here.

3. Marlin Midstream Partners, LP (FISH): $18.27

Director and CEO W Keith Maxwell III acquired 13,200 shares of this oil & gas pipelines company, paying $17.84 per share for a total amount of $235,516. Mr. Maxwell increased his stake by 132.00% to 23,200 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Marlin Midstream Partners, LP here.

4. Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB): $36.24

Director Frank T. Macinnis acquired 3,800 shares of this oil & gas pipelines company, paying $36.71 per share for a total amount of $139,494. Mr. Macinnis increased his stake by 3.63% to 108,526 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Williams Companies, Inc. here.

5. Opko Health, Inc. (OPK): $8.66

CEO & Chairman Phillip Frost M.D. acquired 15,000 shares of this Medical Appliances & Equipment company, paying $8.73 per share for a total amount of $131,015. These shares were purchased indirectly by Frost Gamma Investments Trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Opko Health, Inc. here.

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF): $23.14

Vice Chairman John Pappas sold 1,037,500 shares of this wholesale food company for $19.95, generating $20.69 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc. here.

2. Finisar Corp. (FNSR): $23.4

Shares of this communication devices company were sold by 2 insiders:

• Exec Chairman of the Board Jerry S. Rawls sold 706,172 shares for $22.86, generating $16.14 million from the sale. 346,647 of these shares were sold indirectly through a Limited Partnership.
• Director Roger C. Ferguson sold 2,000 shares for $23.68, generating $47,360 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 Finisar Corp. here.

3. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $51.24

Shares of Facebook were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sold 176,452 shares for $49.06, generating $8.67 million from the sale. 6,696 of these shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• VP, General Counsel & Secretary Colin Stretch sold 2,397 shares for $48.51, generating $116,278 from the sale.

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

4. Sonic Corp. (SONC): $17.89

Shares of this restaurant chain were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chief Executive Officer Clifford J. Hudson sold 300,000 shares for $18.44, generating $5.53 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• Director Frank E. Richardson II sold 150,000 shares for $18.00, generating $2.7 million from the sale.

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

5. Sapient Corp. (SAPE): $15.87

Director Stuart J. Moore sold 500,000 shares of this business software & services company for $15.75, generating $7.87 million from the sale. 203,000 of these shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

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

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