Insider Weekends: June 24, 2016

Welcome to edition 314 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased last week with insiders buying $124.52 million of stock compared to $81.74 million in the week prior. Selling decreased with insiders selling $462.5 million of stock last week compared to $1.15 billion in the week prior.

Nearly 80% of the insider buying last week was related to the 10% owner and Singapore based investment company Shanda Group increasing their stake in Lending Club (LC) after the big drop in the company’s shares in April that eventually led to the CEO resigning.

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 3.71. In other words, insiders sold  almost 4 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 14.06. 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. Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AAOI): $9.82

Director Alan D. Moore acquired 105,000 shares of this fiber-optic networking products provider, paying $10.08 per share for a total amount of $1.06 million. Mr. Moore increased his stake by 89.33% to 222,542 shares with this purchase.

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

2. TICC Capital Corp. (TICC): $5.18

Shares of this business development company were acquired by 3 insiders:

• President and COO Saul B. Rosenthal acquired 68,800 shares, paying $5.45 per share for a total amount of $374,649. Mr. Rosenthal increased his stake by 9.00% to 833,651 shares with this purchase.
• Chief Executive Officer Jonathan H. Cohen acquired 68,800 shares, paying $5.45 per share for a total amount of $374,649. Mr. Cohen increased his stake by 7.11% to 1,036,514 shares with this purchase.
• Director Charles M. Royce acquired 34,400 shares, paying $5.45 per share for a total amount of $187,325. Mr. Royce increased his stake by 7.74% to 478,614 shares with this purchase.

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

3. Pure Storage, Inc. (PSTG): $10.15

10% Owner James N. White acquired 66,000 shares of this enterprise data storage platform provider, paying $10.12 per share for a total amount of $667,920. 16,000 of these shares were purchased indirectly by Mr. White’s children and 50,000 shares were purchased indirectly by a limited partnership.

We normally tend to avoid highlighting purchases by 10% owners but decided to make an exception in this case. Mr. White is a Managing Director at the Venture Capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures and Sutter Hill was an investor in Pure Storage through its Series A through F rounds of investments before it became a public company. These purchases stood out because some of these purchases were made by Mr. White for his children or were acquired directly by his children.

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

4. Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. (NERV): $10.23

Director David Kupfer acquired 55,635 shares of this biotech company, paying $10.84 per share for a total amount of $603,001. Mr. Kupfer increased his stake by 36.23% to 209,188 shares with this purchase. 27,935 of these shares were purchased indirectly by Mr. Kupfer’s wife.

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

5. Biglari Holdings Inc. (BH): $425.69

Director Sardar Biglari, acquired 1,359 shares of this restaurant holding company, paying $397.65 per share for a total amount of $540,401. These shares were purchased indirectly by The Lion Fund.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Biglari Holdings Inc. here.

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF): $34.67

Shares of this insurance company were sold by 3 insiders:

• Director William P. Foley II sold 862,775 shares for $34.81, generating $30.03 million from the sale.
• Chief Operating Officer Roger S. Jewkes sold 57,459 shares for $35.33, generating $2.03 million from the sale. 38,282 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Chief Executive Officer Raymond R. Quirk sold 37,613 shares for $34.75, generating $1.31 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 Fidelity National Financial, Inc. here.

2. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $112.08

Shares of Facebook were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sold 109,000 shares for $114.19, generating $12.45 million from the sale. 52,404 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Director Jan Koum sold 19,534 shares for $115.01, generating $2.25 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

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

3. Celgene Corporation (CELG): $96.29

Executive Chairman Robert J. Hugin sold 75,000 shares of this biotech company for $100.16, generating $7.5 million from the sale.

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

4. DexCom, Inc. (DXCM): $77.46

Shares of this medical devices company were sold by 3 insiders:

• EVP, Clinical, Regulatory Andrew K. Balo sold 55,000 shares for $75.00, generating $4.13 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• President & CEO Kevin R. Sayer sold 35,000 shares for $75.00, generating $2.63 million from the sale.
• SVP, Operations Jeffrey Moy sold 7,209 shares for $77.00, generating $555,093 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

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

5. Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (BKFS): $34.84

Shares of this business software & services company were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chairman William P. Foley II sold 139,722 shares for $34.24, generating $4.78 million from the sale.
• Chief Operating Officer Anthony Orefice sold 42,125 shares for $35.00, generating $1.47 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. here.

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.

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