Insider Weekends – Jeff Bezos Sells Over $1 Billion of Amazon.com Stock

Welcome to edition 385 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying decreased last week with insiders purchasing $54.01 million of stock compared to $85.03 million in the week prior. Selling more than doubled for a second week in a row with insiders selling $2.98 billion of stock last week compared to $1.32 billion in the week prior. More than a third of this selling was as a result of Jeff Bezos selling Amazon.com (AMZN) stock as discussed below.

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 went up to 55.24. In other words, insiders sold more than 55 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavourably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 15.5.

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. Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. (OHI): $28.39

Shares of this healthcare REIT were acquired by 2 insiders:

• Director Bernard J. Korman acquired 100,000 shares, paying $28.24 per share for a total amount of $2.82 million. Mr. Korman increased his stake by 12.44% to 903,895 shares with this purchase.
• Director Craig R. Callen acquired 10,000 shares, paying $27.38 per share for a total amount of $273,800. Mr. Callen increased his stake by 55.56% to 28,000 shares with this purchase.

It was a little unusual to see a healthcare REIT with a focus on nursing care properties and assisted living properties behave like a beaten down retail or mall REIT sporting a high yield. The drop in OHI’s stock last week following the release of dismal third quarter earnings and an increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.65/share has pushed its dividend yield to 9.16%. This is significantly higher than the 3.81% yield of all equity REITs and the 5.47% yield of healthcare REITs (pdf).

While this appears to be an opportunistic purchase, Mr. Korman also acquired 100,000 shares last November. Mr. Korman has served as a director of OHI since 1993.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. here.

2. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA): $66.87

Shares of this pharmacy-led health and wellbeing company were acquired by 3 insiders:

• Director John Anthony Lederer acquired 20,000 shares, paying $67.00 per share for a total amount of $1.34 million. Mr. Lederer increased his stake by 66.67% to 50,000 shares with this purchase.
• Director Ginger L. Graham acquired 2,150 shares, paying $69.86 per share for a total amount of $150,199.
• Director Janice M. Babiak acquired 600 shares, paying $69.64 per share for a total amount of $41,784. Mr. Babiak increased his stake by 100.00% to 1,200 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. here.

3. Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT): $110.65

President John Redmond acquired 11,000 shares of this airline, paying $138.28 per share for a total amount of $1.52 million. Mr. Redmond increased his stake by 13.48% to 92,574 shares with this purchase.

This is the first insider purchase we have seen at this discount carrier in over seven years.

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

4. Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR): $335.43

Chief Financial Officer Christopher L. Winfrey acquired 3,100 shares of this cable TV and internet provider, paying $323.61 per share for a total amount of $1,003,191. Mr. Winfrey increased his stake by 6.62% to 49,916 shares with this purchase.

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

5. Education Realty Trust, Inc. (EDR): $35.68

Shares of this college housing focused REIT were acquired by 2 insiders:

• Chairman and CEO Randy L. Churchey acquired 20,000 shares, paying $35.01 per share for a total amount of $700,200. Mr. Churchey increased his stake by 15.44% to 149,506 shares with this purchase.
• Executive VP and CFO Edwin B. Brewer acquired 5,000 shares, paying $35.01 per share for a total amount of $175,050. Mr. Brewer increased his stake by 39.45% to 17,674 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Education Realty Trust, Inc. here.

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): $1,111.60

Chairman, CEO and President Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 1,000,000 shares of Amazon for $1097.80, generating $1.09 billion from the sale.

This is his second sale of nearly $1 billion this year. The recent surge in Amazon.com’s stock price over $1,000 made Mr. Bezos the richest person in the world, surpassing Bill Gates, who also sold over $1 billion worth of Microsoft shares since the start of this year.

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

2. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $178.92

Shares of Facebook were sold by 2 insiders:

• Director Jan Koum sold 2,600,000 shares for $180.09, generating $468.23 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• VP and General Counsel Colin Stretch sold 750 shares for $180.16, generating $135,118 from the sale.

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

3. Loews Corporation (L): $49.61

Shares of this conglomerate were sold by 2 insiders:

• Co-Ch. of Bd/Off. of the Pres. Jonathan M. Tisch sold 1,394,935 shares for $48.40, generating $67.51 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by trusts.
• Director Joseph L. Bower sold 8 shares for $49.67, generating $397 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 Loews Corporation here.

4. National Instruments Corporation (NATI): $44.7

Shares of this scientific hardware and software company were sold by 2 insiders:

• Director James J. Truchard sold 992,662 shares for $43.67, generating $43.35 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by various trusts and entities.
• Director Jeffrey L. Kodosky sold 2,000 shares for $44.60, generating $89,200 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by trusts.

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

5. Twitter, Inc. (TWTR): $19.9

Shares of Twitter were sold by 2 insiders:

• Director Evan Clark Williams sold 2,000,300 shares for $21.06, generating $42.12 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by trusts.
• Chief Accounting Officer Robert Kaiden sold 6,574 shares for $20.59, generating $135,326 from the sale. 2,073 of these shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

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

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

Disclaimer: I hold long positions in Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT) and Twitter (TWTR). 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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