Welcome to edition 501 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying decreased significantly last week with insiders purchasing $11.65 million of stock compared to $48.31 million in the week prior. Selling also decreased with insiders selling $569.34 million of stock last week compared to $714.05 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 48.89. In other words, insiders sold almost 49 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 14.78.
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. Fastenal Company (FAST): $35.52
Director Darren R. Jackson acquired 18,000 shares of this distributer of industrial and construction supplies, paying $35.57 per share for a total amount of $640,231. Mr. Jackson increased his stake by 60.00% to 48,000 shares with this purchase.