Insider Weekends – CEO of Company Formerly Known as QVC Acquires $4.5 Million Worth of Stock

Happy Labor Day weekend and welcome to edition 428 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined last week with insiders purchasing $36.40 million of stock compared to $43.43 million in the week prior. Selling also declined with insiders selling $1.26 billion of stock last week compared to $1.95 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 decreased to 34.49. In other words, insiders sold more than 34 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 44.99.

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. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO): $133.56

Director Paul E. Viera acquired 75,000 shares of this videogame company, paying $133.93 per share for a total amount of $10.05 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. here.

2. Qurate Retail Group, Inc. (QRTEA): $20.79

President, CEO Michael A. George acquired 220,600 shares of this specialty retail company, paying $20.40 per share for a total amount of $4.49 million. Mr. George increased his stake by 15.85% to 1,612,216 shares with this purchase.

Qurate is the company that was formerly known as QVC and includes the brands QVC, HSN, zulily, etc. that generate $14 billion in annual revenue. Mr. George served as the CEO of QVC from November 2005 through March 2018, when the company changed its name to Qurate. QVC acquire zulily in 2015 and then merged with Home Shopping Network (HSN) in mid-2017.

While Mr. George has purchased shares of Ralph Lauren (RL) and Brinker International (EAT) in the past, this is his first open market purchase of Qurate. His purchase follows a 22% decline in the stock over the last six months, compared to a 15% jump in the retail ETF XRT over the same time period.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Qurate Retail Group, Inc. here.

3. Liberty Latin America Ltd. (LILA): $19.71

Shares of this Pay TV company were acquired by 2 insiders:

• President and CEO Balan Nair acquired 110,000 shares, paying $18.14 per share for a total amount of $1.99 million. Mr. Nair increased his stake by 1593.51% to 116,903 shares with this purchase.
• Director Eric Louis Zinterhofer acquired 104,303 shares, paying $18.43 per share for a total amount of $1.92 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a fund.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Liberty Latin America Ltd. here.

4. Andeavor Logistics LP (ANDX): $48.58

Director Jeff A. Stevens acquired 39,175 shares of this energy pipeline company, paying $50.14 per share for a total amount of $1.96 million. Mr. Stevens increased his stake by 7.64% to 552,136 shares with this purchase.

This is the third week in a row we have highlighted purchases of Andeavor Logistics by Mr. Stevens.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Andeavor Logistics LP here.

5. New Age Beverages Corporation (NBEV): $1.48

Shares of this beverage company were acquired by 2 insiders:

• Director Ed Brennan acquired 1,195,000 shares, paying $1.30 per share for a total amount of $1.55 million.
• Director Gregory Fea acquired 39,000 shares, paying $1.28 per share for a total amount of $49,920. Mr. Fea increased his stake by 129.00% to 69,232 shares with this purchase.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for New Age Beverages Corporation here.

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $175.73

Shares of Facebook were sold by 4 insiders:

• COB and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 865,210 shares for $175.92, generating $152.21 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by various entities.
• VP Bus. & Marketing P’ships David B. Fischer sold 61,103 shares for $176.21, generating $10.77 million from the sale.
• Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sold 55,000 shares for $175.67, generating $9.66 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• VP and General Counsel Colin Stretch sold 750 shares for $176.10, generating $132,075 from the sale.

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

2. Parsley Energy, Inc. (PE): $27.77

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bryan Sheffield sold 2,500,000 shares of this independent oil and natural gas company for $28.15, generating $70.37 million from the sale.

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

3. Intuit Inc. (INTU): $219.47

Shares of this accounting and tax software company were sold by 4 insiders:

• Chairman of Exec. Committee Scott D. Cook sold 100,000 shares for $211.66, generating $21,165,920 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by various trusts.
• EVP, Chief Technology Officer Henry Tayloe Stansbury sold 31,396 shares for $211.65, generating $6,644,873 from the sale. 25,504 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• VP, Chief Accounting Officer Mark J. Flournoy sold 9,292 shares for $218.90, generating $2,034,026 from the sale. 7,344 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Director Dennis D. Powell sold 4,554 shares for $215.05, generating $979,360 from the sale.

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

4. RealPage, Inc. (RP): $62.4

Chairman President & CEO Stephen T. Winn sold 494,968 shares of this application software company for $61.05, generating $30.22 million from the sale. 296,980 of these shares were sold indirectly by  Seren Capital Ltd.

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

5. Twitter, Inc. (TWTR): $35.18

Director Evan Clark Williams sold 682,242 shares of Twitter for $35.45, generating $24,185,044 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by various trusts.

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.

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

Disclaimer: I hold a long position in 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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/asifsuria or follow me on Twitter @asifsuria