Welcome to edition 285 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined last week with insiders buying $45.92 million of stock compared to $67.18 million in the week prior. Selling also decreased with insiders selling $1.15 billion of stock last week compared to $1.85 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 purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week dropped to 25.02. In other words, insiders sold more than 25 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 27.49. 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. DSW Inc. (DSW): $23.67
Executive Chairman Jay L. Schottenstein acquired 500,000 shares of this retailer of shoes, paying $22.87 per share for a total amount of $11.44 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Schottenstein Realty LLC.
We wrote the following about the company after a purchase by Mr. Schottenstein in August,
“DSW posted respectable second quarter earnings with a 7% increase in net sales to $627 million, a 10% increase in earnings to $38 million or 42 cents per share and a 2% increase in same store sales. Yet the stock lounges near its 52 week low despite trading for less than 7 times EBITDA and sporting a dividend yield of 2.66%. The company has a strong balance sheet with no debt and $471 million in short and long-term investments. The stock was down following second quarter results because revenue fell short of analyst expectations and inventory increased to $505 million, a 6.3% increase on a square foot basis.”
The stock trended down over the last few months along with other brick-and-mortar retailers before rebounding more than 4% on Friday following Mr. Schottenstein’s purchase.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for DSW Inc. here.
P/E: 13.62 | Forward P/E: 14.61 | Industry P/E: 18.34 |
P/S: 0.78 | Price/Book: 1.95 | EV/EBITDA: 6.19 |
Market Cap: $2.10B | Avg. Daily Volume: 2,310,910 | 52 Week Range: $21.23 – $39.58 |
2. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD): $22.93
Director James T. Hackett acquired 125,000 shares of this independent oil & gas company, paying $24.50 per share for a total amount of $3.06 million. Mr. Hackett increased his stake by 136.62% to 216,497 shares with this purchase. 25,000 of these shares were purchased indirectly by 1997 Hackett Investment, L.P.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Enterprise Products Partners L.P. here.
P/E: 18.2 | Forward P/E: 15.6 | Industry P/E: 10 |
P/S: 1.52 | Price/Book: 2.34 | EV/EBITDA: 14.16 |
Market Cap: $45.99B | Avg. Daily Volume: 5,127,400 | 52 Week Range: $22.01 – $37.19 |
3. Ares Management, L.P. (ARES): $13.9
Shares of this alternative asset manager were acquired by 4 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Ares Management, L.P. here.
P/E: 52.06 | Forward P/E: 7.85 | Industry P/E: 14.09 |
P/S: 3.66 | Price/Book: 4.4 | EV/EBITDA: 40.13 |
Market Cap: $1.12B | Avg. Daily Volume: 79,000 | 52 Week Range: $13.56 – $21.84 |
4. EXCO Resources Inc. (XCO): $1.09
Director John C. Wilder Jr. acquired 1,556,890 shares of this independent oil and natural gas company, paying $1.28 per share for a total amount of $1.99 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Energy Strategic Advisory Services LLC.
ESAS is the registered owner of these shares. Bluescape Resources Company LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, owns 100% of the membership interests of ESAS and has the power to direct the affairs of ESAS.
Mr. Charles John Wilder Jr. has the power to direct the affairs of Bluescape as its Executive Chairman. The Reporting Person states that neither the filing of this statement nor anything herein shall be deemed an admission that he is, for purposes of Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) or otherwise, the beneficial owner of these securities.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for EXCO Resources Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: N/A | Industry P/E: 10 |
P/S: 0.85 | Price/Book: N/A | EV/EBITDA: 5.8 |
Market Cap: $308.53M | Avg. Daily Volume: 3,004,510 | 52 Week Range: $0.48 – $2.66 |
5. First Citizens Bancshares Inc. (FCNCA): $256.58
Shares of this regional bank were acquired by 2 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for First Citizens Bancshares Inc. here.
P/E: 13.37 | Forward P/E: N/A | Industry P/E: 16.48 |
P/S: 2.25 | Price/Book: 1.06 | EV/EBITDA: N/A |
Market Cap: $3.08B | Avg. Daily Volume: 14,846 | 52 Week Range: $213.74 – $271.97 |
You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.
Notable Insider Sales:
1. Twitter, Inc. (TWTR): $25.02
Shares of Twitter were sold by 3 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Twitter, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: 43.14 | Industry P/E: 36.22 |
P/S: 8.81 | Price/Book: 4.1 | EV/EBITDA: -72.11 |
Market Cap: $17.09B | Avg. Daily Volume: 20,703,000 | 52 Week Range: $21.01 – $53.49 |
2. Workday, Inc. (WDAY): $84.58
Shares of this application software company were sold by 4 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Workday, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: 2 | Industry P/E: 37.66 |
P/S: 14.97 | Price/Book: 14.17 | EV/EBITDA: -89.7 |
Market Cap: $16.24B | Avg. Daily Volume: 1,422,440 | 52 Week Range: $65.33 – $95.17 |
3. j2 Global, Inc. (JCOM): $80.9
Director Richard S. Ressler sold 164,849 shares of this internet software company for $80.68, generating $13.3 million from the sale.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for j2 Global, Inc. here.
P/E: 30.3 | Forward P/E: 16.89 | Industry P/E: 46.16 |
P/S: 5.69 | Price/Book: 4.39 | EV/EBITDA: 14.73 |
Market Cap: $3.93B | Avg. Daily Volume: 295,903 | 52 Week Range: $56.5 – $81.97 |
4. Aon plc (AON): $96.65
President & CEO Gregory C. Case sold 99,645 shares of this risk management, HR services and insurance company for $95.02, generating $9.47 million from the sale.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Aon plc here.
P/E: 22.12 | Forward P/E: 14.78 | Industry P/E: 22.25 |
P/S: 2.2 | Price/Book: 4.36 | EV/EBITDA: 12.73 |
Market Cap: $26.47B | Avg. Daily Volume: 1,297,540 | 52 Week Range: $86.38 – $107.08 |
5. salesforce.com, inc. (CRM): $82.14
Shares of this software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider were sold by 8 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for salesforce.com, inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: 82.97 | Industry P/E: 37.66 |
P/S: 8.42 | Price/Book: 11.17 | EV/EBITDA: 138.18 |
Market Cap: $54.54B | Avg. Daily Volume: 3,769,520 | 52 Week Range: $53.44 – $82.9 |
You can view the full list of sales from this Insider Sales page.
Disclaimer Clients of Signal Partners, LLC and I may have positions in any of these stocks at any time. 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