Welcome to edition 472 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined significantly last week with insiders purchasing $58.39 million of stock compared to $131.18 million in the week prior. Selling also decreased with insiders selling $704.94 million of stock last week compared to $1.14 billion in the week prior. With the start of a new quarter and most companies entering a pre-earnings quiet period, insider activity is likely to remain muted for a few weeks.
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 12.07. In other words, insiders sold more than 12 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 8.67.
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. Worthington Industries, Inc. (WOR): $40.1
Director John B. Blystone acquired 25,000 shares of this metals manufacturing company, paying $39.88 per share for a total amount of $997,068. Mr. Blystone increased his stake by 15.21% to 189,370 shares with this purchase.