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Insider Weekends – Leucadia Adds to its Fiesta Restaurant Stake Again

  • June 11, 2017

Welcome to edition 364 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined significantly with insiders buying $59.19 million of stock compared to $158.99 million in the week prior. Selling on the other hand increased with insiders selling $2.08 billion of stock last week compared to $1.73 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 went up to 35.11. In other words, insiders sold more than 35 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 10.88.

Insider Sell Buy Ratio June 9, 2017
Insider Sell Buy Ratio June 9, 2017

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. Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. (FRGI): $21.5

Shares of this restaurants chain were acquired by 2 insiders:

  • Director Brian P. Friedman acquired 309,115 shares, paying $21.12 per share for a total amount of $6.53 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Leucadia National Corporation.
  • Director Barry J. Alperin acquired 2,300 shares, paying $21.17 per share for a total amount of $48,693. Mr. Alperin increased his stake by 13.64% to 19,166 shares with this purchase.

We highlighted Leucadia’s purchases of FRGI twice in March and wrote the following after their first purchase,

Mr. Friedman was the Chair of the Execute Committee at Jefferies before its acquisition by Leucadia in March 2013 and became the President of Leucadia following the acquisition. Mr. Friedman also served as President of Jefferies Capital Partners, a private equity fund management company controlled by Mr. Friedman in which Jefferies has an ownership interest.

In mid-2013, Mr. Friedman sold over $33 million of Fiesta Restaurant Group stock indirectly through Jefferies Capital Partners at an average price of $35.34. It is interesting to see Mr. Friedman purchase shares of Fiesta at much lower prices during this downturn in the fast casual dining industry.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. here.

P/E: -69.35Forward P/E: 17.62Industry P/E: 86.83
P/S: 0.81Price/Book: 2.31EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $579.09MAvg. Daily Volume: 452,63252 Week Range: $19.4 – $30.65

2. DDR Corp. (DDR): $9.17

Shares of this shopping center REIT were acquired by 3 insiders:

  • Director Alexander Otto acquired 600,000 shares, paying $8.80 per share for a total amount of $5.28 million. Mr. Otto increased his stake by 1.35% to 45,117,893 shares with this purchase.
  • EVP & COO Michael Makinen acquired 11,325 shares, paying $8.83 per share for a total amount of $100,000. Mr. Makinen increased his stake by 20.58% to 66,361 shares with this purchase.
  • Director Thomas Finne acquired 2,000 shares, paying $8.70 per share for a total amount of $17,400. Mr. Finne increased his stake by 3.13% to 66,000 shares with this purchase.

Amongst retail REITs, insiders of DDR have been the most active even as the stock has continued to decline. The stock reversed course last week after hitting a 52 week low of $8.28 and the entire sector including both retailers as well as retail REITs were up sharply even as tech stocks dropped on Friday. Whether this is sector rotation into a beaten down sector or just a dead cat bounce remains to be seen.

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

P/E: -53.31Forward P/E: 917Industry P/E: 27.99
P/S: 3.36Price/Book: 1.21EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $3.36BAvg. Daily Volume: 6,519,50452 Week Range: $8.28 – $19.92

3. American Assets Trust, Inc. (AAT): $40.52

Chairman, CEO & President Ernest S. Rady acquired 114,060 shares of this diversified REIT, paying $39.93 per share for a total amount of $4.55 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by American Assets, Inc.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for American Assets Trust, Inc. here.

P/E: 57.15Forward P/E: 43.11Industry P/E: 27.99
P/S: 8.97Price/Book: 2.25EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $2.63BAvg. Daily Volume: 318,12752 Week Range: $37.54 – $46.38

4. Tallgrass Energy Partners, LP (TEP): $46.67

President and CEO David G. Dehaemers Jr. acquired 39,804 shares of this midstream energy assets company, paying $46.55 per share for a total amount of $1.85 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Tallgrass Energy Partners, LP here.

P/E: 19.33Forward P/E: 14.4Industry P/E: 34.7
P/S: 5.68Price/Book: 1.65EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $3.42BAvg. Daily Volume: 198,66752 Week Range: $42.54 – $55.5

5. CSRA Inc. (CSRA): $31.45

President and CEO Lawrence B. Prior III acquired 49,500 shares of this information technology solutions provider, paying $30.50 per share for a total amount of $1.51 million. Mr. Prior increased his stake by 184.91% to 76,270 shares with this purchase.

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

P/E: 17.09Forward P/E: 14.83Industry P/E: 20.51
P/S: 1.03Price/Book: 15.55EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $5.13BAvg. Daily Volume: 948,85452 Week Range: $21.95 – $33.54

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): $79.42

Director S. Robson Walton sold 6,500,000 shares of Wal-Mart for $79.27, generating $515.23 million from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. here.

P/E: 18.03Forward P/E: 17.27Industry P/E: 42.57
P/S: 0.49Price/Book: 3.27EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $240.77BAvg. Daily Volume: 7,860,81652 Week Range: $65.28 – $80.47

2. ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW): $103.74

Shares of this software-as-a-service provider were sold by 2 insiders:

  • Director Frederic B. Luddy sold 167,000 shares for $108.34, generating $18.09 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
  • Director Frank Slootman sold 150,000 shares for $105.75, generating $15,86 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 ServiceNow, Inc. here.

P/E: -108.4Forward P/E: 60.67Industry P/E: 49.22
P/S: 11.74Price/Book: 41.2EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $17.62BAvg. Daily Volume: 1,621,02452 Week Range: $63.51 – $110.66

3. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $149.6

Shares of Facebook were sold by 3 insiders:

  • Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sold 163,500 shares for $153.74, generating $25.14 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
  • Chief Product Officer Christopher K. Cox sold 16,000 shares for $153.08, generating $2.45 million from the sale.
  • VP and General Counsel Colin Stretch sold 750 shares for $153.74, generating $115,308 from the sale.

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

P/E: 38.04Forward P/E: 24.97Industry P/E: 36.79
P/S: 14.31Price/Book: 6.96EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $433.57BAvg. Daily Volume: 16,135,46952 Week Range: $108.23 – $154.73

4. iRhythm Technologies, Inc. (IRTC): $37.89

Director Vijay K. Lathi sold 430,624 shares of this digital healthcare company for $37.59, generating $16.19 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by New Leaf Ventures II, L.P.

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

P/E: -19.75Forward P/E: -55.72Industry P/E: 38.26
P/S: 11.59Price/Book: 9.4EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $842.23MAvg. Daily Volume: 360,24152 Week Range: $22.16 – $40.48

5. Ulta Beauty, Inc. (ULTA): $307.87

Shares of this beauty products retailer were sold by 3 insiders:

  • Director Dennis K. Eck sold 30,000 shares for $312.97, generating $9.39 million from the sale.
  • Director Robert F. DiRomualdo sold 20,000 shares for $309.05, generating $6.18 million from the sale.
  • Director Catherine Ann Halligan sold 500 shares for $312.36, generating $156,182 from the sale.

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

P/E: 43.23Forward P/E: 31.1Industry P/E: 32.98
P/S: 3.75Price/Book: 11.65EV/EBITDA: N/A
Market Cap: $19.13BAvg. Daily Volume: 645,04352 Week Range: $225.13 – $314.86

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

Disclaimer: 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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