Welcome to edition 486 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined significantly last week with insiders purchasing $42.92 million of stock last week compared to $125.79 million in the week prior. Selling also declined with insiders selling $348.05 million of stock last week compared to $508.49 million in the week prior.
As we enter the peak of the third quarter earnings season insider activity is likely to remain muted over the next couple of 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 increased to 8.12. In other words, insiders sold more than 8 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 4.04.
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. Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO): $45.54
Chief Investment Officer Andrew T. Feldstein acquired 46,800 shares of this insurance company, paying $44.16 per share for a total amount of $2.07 million. Mr. Feldstein increased his stake by 195% to 70,800 shares with this purchase.