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Insider Weekends: Harold Hamm Makes His Largest Purchase Since 2010

  • March 3, 2019

Welcome to edition 454 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased significantly last week with insiders purchasing $314.42 million of stock compared to $53.99 million in the week prior. A majority of this increase in insider buying was related to John Paulson acquiring a large stake in BrightSphere as discussed below. Selling also increased with insiders selling $2.09 billion of stock last week compared to $1.86 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 dropped to 6.65. In other words, insiders sold almost 7 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 34.43. 

Insider Sector Heat Map March 1, 2019
Insider Sector Heat Map March 1, 2019 (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. BrightSphere Investment Group plc (BSIG): $14.14

Director John Paulson acquired 14,790,038 shares of this asset management company, paying $13.95 per share for a total amount of $206.32 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Paulson & Co. Inc.

We normally exclude purchases by funds but decided to make an exception in this case as the purchase was done by Paulson & Co. This purchase appears to be related to the transaction announced last November where Paulson & Co. had indicated that they were going to acquire approximately 24.95% of BrightSphere Investment Group.

You can view the list of recent insider transactions for BrightSphere Investment Group plc here.

P/E: 11.22Forward P/E: 7.44Industry P/E: 87.22
P/S: 1.61Price/Book: 14.46EV/EBITDA: 9
Market Cap: $1.5BAvg. Daily Volume: 692,42352 Week Range: $10.04 – $16.34

2. Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR): $45.23

CEO & Chairman Harold Hamm acquired 883,977 shares of this oil & gas company, paying $44.49 per share for a total amount of $39.32 million. Mr. Hamm increased his direct stake by 50.74% to 2.63 million shares with this purchase. He also owns an additional 283 million shares indirectly through a family LLC.

Harold Hamm suffered a double whammy over the last few years where declining oil prices significantly decreased the value of his holdings in Continental Resources, a company he founded in 1967 at the age of 21, and an expensive divorce with his wife of 26 years that required him to pay just under $1 billion as detailed in this Forbes article.

As you can see here, he made several insider purchases of CLR over the years but this is his largest purchase since we started tracking insider data in 2010.

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

P/E: 17.13Forward P/E: 14.45Industry P/E: 14.33
P/S: 3.84Price/Book: 2.74EV/EBITDA: 6.34
Market Cap: $16.83BAvg. Daily Volume: 2,707,57652 Week Range: $35.54 – $71.95

3. Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI): $19.74

Executive Chairman Richard D. Kinder acquired 900,000 shares of this oil & gas pipelines company, paying $19.28 per share for a total amount of $17.35 million. Mr. Kinder increased his stake by 0.38% to 237,911,657 shares with this purchase.

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

P/E: 29.68Forward P/E: 18.11Industry P/E: 45.32
P/S: 3.16Price/Book: 1.33EV/EBITDA: 12.8
Market Cap: $44.68BAvg. Daily Volume: 16,341,51352 Week Range: $14.62 – $19.74

4. Gogo Inc. (GOGO): $4.57

Director Charles C. Townsend acquired 400,000 shares of this in-flight broadband provider, paying $4.42 per share for a total amount of $1.77 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.

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

P/E: N/AForward P/E: -3.2Industry P/E: 15.3
P/S: 0.45Price/Book: N/AEV/EBITDA: 11.27
Market Cap: $400.15MAvg. Daily Volume: 1,786,54252 Week Range: $2.64 – $9.878

5. Mattel, Inc. (MAT): $14.89

Shares of Mattel were acquired by 3 insiders:

  • Chairman & CEO Ynon Kreiz acquired 71,425 shares, paying $14.02 per share for a total amount of $1 million.
  • Director Michael J. Dolan acquired 30,000 shares, paying $13.96 per share for a total amount of $418,800. Mr. Dolan increased his stake by 29.73% to 130,920 shares with this purchase.
  • Chief Financial Officer Joseph J. Euteneuer acquired 20,000 shares, paying $13.95 per share for a total amount of $279,000. Mr. Euteneuer increased his stake by 56.77% to 55,231 shares with this purchase.

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

P/E: N/AForward P/E: 59.56Industry P/E: 25.31
P/S: 1.14Price/Book: 7.68EV/EBITDA: 54.82
Market Cap: $5.14BAvg. Daily Volume: 7,234,01152 Week Range: $9.09 – $17.98

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

Notable Insider Sales:

1. Walmart Inc. (WMT): $97.93

Director Robson S. Walton sold 5,540,232 shares of Walmart for $98.90, generating $547.91 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

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

P/E: 43.33Forward P/E: 19.55Industry P/E: 36.9
P/S: 0.55Price/Book: 3.91EV/EBITDA: 10.45
Market Cap: $284.51BAvg. Daily Volume: 8,593,46252 Week Range: $81.78 – $106.21

2. Twitter, Inc. (TWTR): $30.62

Director Evan Clark Williams sold 682,242 shares of Twitter for $30.83, generating $21.04 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various trusts.

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

P/E: 19.63Forward P/E: 30.02Industry P/E: 41.41
P/S: 7.7Price/Book: 3.43EV/EBITDA: 25.83
Market Cap: $23.41BAvg. Daily Volume: 21,886,39552 Week Range: $26.19 – $47.79

3. Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (MTD): $698.76

Shares of this precision instruments manufacturer were sold by 2 insiders:

  • Director Robert F. Spoerry sold 27,112 shares for $679.13, generating $18.41 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by Mr. Spoerry’s children.
  • Director Wah-Hui Chu sold 500 shares for $678.00, generating $339,000 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 Mettler-Toledo International Inc. here.

P/E: 35.15Forward P/E: 27.62Industry P/E: 24.94
P/S: 5.9Price/Book: 29.51EV/EBITDA: 24.54
Market Cap: $17.33BAvg. Daily Volume: 151,44852 Week Range: $500.74 – $701.25

4. CarGurus, Inc. (CARG): $40.37

Shares of this online auto shopping provider were sold by 2 insiders:

  • Director Anastasios Parafestas sold 411,326 shares for $42.35, generating $17.42 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various trusts.
  • General Counsel and Secretary Kathleen Bender Patton sold 4,856 shares for $42.88, generating $208,222 from the sale.

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

P/E: 70.82Forward P/E: 72.09Industry P/E: 33.91
P/S: 9.79Price/Book: 22.96EV/EBITDA: 152.39
Market Cap: $4.44BAvg. Daily Volume: 697,76552 Week Range: $29.185 – $57.25

5. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ): $56.96

Director Lowell C. McAdam sold 285,988 shares of Verizon for $56.72, generating $16.22 million from the sale.

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

P/E: 15.15Forward P/E: 11.92Industry P/E: 21.33
P/S: 1.8Price/Book: 4.43EV/EBITDA: 6.62
Market Cap: $235.36BAvg. Daily Volume: 16,890,24952 Week Range: $46.09 – $61.58

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.

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