Insider Weekends – Founder of Entercom Communications Continues Buying Stock

  • April 1, 2018

Welcome to edition 406 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined last week with insiders purchasing $55.14 million of stock compared to $75.46 million in the week prior. Selling declined significantly with insiders selling $493.99 million of stock last week compared to $3.24 billion in the week prior. With the start of a new calendar quarter we are likely to see both buying and selling remain muted for the next few weeks as companies enter their quiet period before earnings.

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 down to 8.96. In other words, insiders sold almost 9 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 42.98.

Sector heat map of management insider purchases over the last week
Sector heat map of management insider purchases over the last week (click to enlarge)

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. DDR Corp. (DDR): $7.33

Director Alexander Otto acquired 2,033,703 shares of this shopping center REIT, paying $7.02 per share for a total amount of $14.27 million. Mr. Otto increased his stake by 4.09% to 51,754,895 shares with this purchase.

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

P/E: N/AForward P/E: 36.65Industry P/E: 32.58
P/S: 2.94Price/Book: 1.14EV/EBITDA: 10.55
Market Cap: $2.7BAvg. Daily Volume: 4,792,68052 Week Range: $6.76 – $13

2. Entercom Communications Corp. (ETM): $9.65

Founder and Chairman Emeritus Joseph M. Field acquired 640,000 shares of this radio broadcasting company, paying $9.59 per share for a total amount of $6,140,410. Mr. Field increased his stake by 13.14% to 5,511,897 shares with this purchase.

We also reported on a $7.96 million purchase by Mr. Field two weeks ago and his purchase of $4.39 million worth of stock in late November after Entercom Communications merged with CBS Radio. This article does a great job of exploring the opportunity that potentially exists for Entercom following the CBS Radio merger.

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

P/E: 2.2Forward P/E: 6.79Industry P/E: 23.84
P/S: 2.25Price/Book: 0.79EV/EBITDA: 31.36
Market Cap: $1.33BAvg. Daily Volume: 2,408,54952 Week Range: $9.25 – $14.38

3. Tiffany & Co. (TIF): $97.66

Shares of this luxury jewelry retailer were acquired by 3 insiders:

  • Director Roger N. Farah acquired 10,000 shares, paying $97.66 per share for a total amount of $976,628. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.
  • Director Francesco Trapani acquired 10,000 shares, paying $98.55 per share for a total amount of $985,462. These shares were purchased indirectly by Argenta Holdings Sarl, which is 100% owned by Mr. Trapani.
  • Director James E. Lillie acquired 5,000 shares, paying $96.03 per share for a total amount of $480,128. Mr. Lillie increased his stake by 29.14% to 22,156 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Tiffany & Co. here.

P/E: 32.99Forward P/E: 19.73Industry P/E: 38.97
P/S: 2.91Price/Book: 3.76EV/EBITDA: 11.53
Market Cap: $12.15BAvg. Daily Volume: 1,590,80152 Week Range: $84.15 – $111.44

4. Schlumberger Limited (SLB): $64.78

Shares of this oil services company were acquired by 3 insiders:

  • Chief Executive Officer Paal Kibsgaard acquired 10,000 shares, paying $64.68 per share for a total amount of $646,800. Mr. Kibsgaard increased his stake by 9.52% to 115,000 shares with this purchase.
  • EVP New Ventures Patrick Schorn acquired 5,000 shares, paying $64.79 per share for a total amount of $323,950. Mr. Schorn increased his stake by 25.00% to 25,000 shares with this purchase.
  • President, Eastern Hemisphere Mogharbel Al Khaled acquired 3,000 shares, paying $64.30 per share for a total amount of $192,900. Mr. Khaled increased his stake by 10.92% to 30,482 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Schlumberger Limited here.

P/E: N/AForward P/E: 20.31Industry P/E: 26.78
P/S: 2.95Price/Book: 2.43EV/EBITDA: 15.35
Market Cap: $89.78BAvg. Daily Volume: 8,807,47352 Week Range: $61.02 – $80.89

5. LCI Industries (LCII): $104.15

Director James Gero acquired 10,000 shares of this industrial components manufacturer, paying $102.09 per share for a total amount of $1.02 million. Mr. Gero increased his stake by 4.13% to 252,049 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for LCI Industries here.

P/E: 19.88Forward P/E: 11.28Industry P/E: 35.51
P/S: 1.21Price/Book: 3.99EV/EBITDA: 10.23
Market Cap: $2.6BAvg. Daily Volume: 178,81852 Week Range: $86.25 – $132.73

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $159.79

COB and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 438,739 shares of Facebook for $155.58, generating $68.26 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various entities.

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

P/E: 29.65Forward P/E: 17.95Industry P/E: 42.44
P/S: 11.42Price/Book: 6.24EV/EBITDA: 18.83
Market Cap: $464.19BAvg. Daily Volume: 32,921,28152 Week Range: $138.81 – $195.32

2. Twitter, Inc. (TWTR): $29.01

Director Evan Clark Williams sold 546,200 shares of Twitter for $29.04, generating $15.86 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by various trusts and entities.

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

P/E: N/AForward P/E: 41.44Industry P/E: 42.44
P/S: 8.88Price/Book: 4.28EV/EBITDA: 60.09
Market Cap: $21.7BAvg. Daily Volume: 32,743,46852 Week Range: $14.12 – $36.8

3. RealPage, Inc. (RP): $51.5

Chairman President & CEO Stephen T. Winn sold 290,720 shares of this application software company for $51.40, generating $14.94 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various entities.

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

P/E: 10300Forward P/E: 29.2614Industry P/E: 34
P/S: 6.37789Price/Book: 8.28507EV/EBITDA: 52.103
Market Cap: $4.28BAvg. Daily Volume: 470,71652 Week Range: $32.3 – $54.95

4. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): $231.59

Shares of this semiconductor company were sold by 2 insiders:

  • EVP, Operations Debora Shoquist sold 32,049 shares for $239.45, generating $7.67 million from the sale.
  • Director Persis Drell sold 5,141 shares for $220.73, generating $1.13 million from the sale.

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

P/E: 48.05Forward P/E: 31.89Industry P/E: 21.97
P/S: 14.42Price/Book: 18.79EV/EBITDA: 41.43
Market Cap: $140.11BAvg. Daily Volume: 16,591,26052 Week Range: $95.49 – $254.5

5. salesforce.com, inc. (CRM): $116.3

Shares of this cloud software company were sold by 6 insiders:

  • Chairman of the Board and CEO Marc Benioff sold 25,000 shares for $115.77, generating $2.89 million from the sale.
  • Vice Chairman, Pres. and COO Keith Block sold 20,000 shares for $115.94, generating $2.32 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
  • President and CFO Mark J. Hawkins sold 16,844 shares for $118.12, generating $1.99 million from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
  • Co-Founder and CTO Parker Harris sold 1,850 shares for $120.12, generating $222,222 from the sale.
  • Pres., Sales & Cust. Success Maria Martinez sold 936 shares for $118.00, generating $110,448 from the sale.
  • Director John Victor Roos sold 143 shares for $113.91, generating $16,289 from the sale.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for salesforce.com, inc. here.

P/E: 684.118Forward P/E: 44.9035Industry P/E: 28.7
P/S: 8.12748Price/Book: 9.04073EV/EBITDA: 93.744
Market Cap: $85.18BAvg. Daily Volume: 6,060,40452 Week Range: $81.55 – $128.87

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

The list of all insider purchases and sales by management people is only available to InsideArbitrage Premium and Plus members.

Disclaimer: I hold long positions in Entercom Communications (ETM) and Twitter (TWTR), and a short position in Facebook (FB). 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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