Welcome to edition 445 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined sharply last week with insiders purchasing $57.27 million million of stock compared to $209.15 million in the week prior. Selling also declined with insiders selling $246.43 million of stock last week compared to $513.22 million 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 went up to 4.3. In other words, insiders sold more than 4 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 2.45.
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. Scientific Games Corporation (SGMS): $17.49
Director Ronald O. Perelman acquired 300,000 shares of this gaming company, paying $16.51 per share for a total amount of $4.95 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated.