Welcome to edition 581 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying decreased last week with insiders purchasing $84.25 million of stock purchased compared to $190.52 million in the week prior. Selling also decreased to $2.78 billion compared to $5.37 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 went up to 32.99 In other words, insiders sold almost 33 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week was unfavorable compared to the prior week when the ratio stood at 28.21.
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. B. Riley Financial, Inc. (RILY): $62.8
Shares of B. Riley Financial were acquired by 3 insiders:
We have seen Bryant Riley purchase shares of B. Riley several times over the last few years but this is his largest purchase since we started tracking insider purchases over a decade ago. He has purchased more than 150,000 shares in a single week before but those purchases were at much lower prices and hence he spent significantly less than $9 million on those purchases. Looking through his history of large insider purchases, he purchased,
I got interested in B. Riley after a series of insider purchases by him and other insiders in 2020. We featured the company as a spotlight idea in our September 2020 special situations newsletter and wrote the following about the company when it was trading for a bargain basement price of $26.78 (unadjusted for special or regular dividends),
B. Riley is a financial services firm that kept showing up on my radar multiple times over the years either because it was acquiring public companies, was buying back its own stock or because multiple insiders were buying the stock. I started digging into the company and its myriad lines of businesses and the more I looked into it, the more I liked what I saw.
The company was founded in 1997 as a boutique research firm focused on small-cap stocks. The company went public in 2014 by merging with the publicly traded financial advisory firm Great American Group. The stock has appreciated 232% since that merger was consummated on June 18, 2014. This compares with a gain of 32% in the Russell 2000 index over the same period.
The company provides investment banking services, wealth management services (over $10 billion in assets under management), appraisals, specialty financial advisory services and retail liquidation services in addition to owning certain companies outright.
Their advisory services businesses combined with their recent penchant to acquire brands or companies outright makes me think of B. Riley as a baby Berkshire Hathaway. The siren call of discovering the next Berkshire Hathaway or the next Warren Buffett has lead many investors astray and the investment landscape is littered with the ghosts of Eddie Lampert, Sardar Biglari, Prem Watsa, etc. That said, the more I looked into B. Riley, the more intrigued I was by the company. While the stock has appreciated handsomely from its March lows, the enterprise value of the company is just $752.27 million (market cap of $684.17 million, plus $55.6 million of preferred shares and $12.5 million of net debt) and I expect years of growth from the company as it navigates a potentially challenging macroeconomic landscape.
The stock has more than doubled since then and paid out $7 per share in special dividends in addition to $1.50 in regular dividends this year. The stock went ex-dividend on 8/12/2021 for its latest $1.50 special dividend and the stock has dropped more than 10% through last Thursday, potentially triggering this latest round of insider purchases. I hold a long position in B. Riley and averaged up on the position a few months ago.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for B. Riley Financial, Inc. here.
P/E: 3.22 | Forward P/E: N/A | Industry P/E: 15.15 |
P/S: 1.2 | Price/Book: 2.39 | EV/EBITDA: N/A |
Market Cap: $1.73B | Avg. Daily Volume: 291,664 | 52 Week Range: $24.27 – $78.95 |
2. Morphic Holding, Inc. (MORF): $57.24
Director Timothy A. Springer acquired 74,927 shares of this biotech company, paying $56.23 per share for a total amount of $4.21 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by TAS Partners LLC.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Morphic Holding, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: -18.23 | Industry P/E: N/A |
P/S: 53.81 | Price/Book: 5.97 | EV/EBITDA: -27.07 |
Market Cap: $2.09B | Avg. Daily Volume: 225,189 | 52 Week Range: $24.52 – $93 |
3. Ball Corporation (BLL): $94.63
Shares of this aluminum packaging products supplier were acquired by 7 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Ball Corporation here.
P/E: 36.3 | Forward P/E: 22.64 | Industry P/E: 27.73 |
P/S: 2.42 | Price/Book: 8.5 | EV/EBITDA: 18.87 |
Market Cap: $30.91B | Avg. Daily Volume: 2,181,803 | 52 Week Range: $76.83 – $102.76 |
4. Biodesix, Inc. (BDSX): $7.96
Shares of this data-driven diagnostic solutions company were acquired by 2 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Biodesix, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: -9.26 | Industry P/E: 27.62 |
P/S: 2.79 | Price/Book: 8.33 | EV/EBITDA: -9.77 |
Market Cap: $214.69M | Avg. Daily Volume: 168,015 | 52 Week Range: $6.52 – $31.99 |
5. Finance Of America Companies Inc. (FOA): $5.31
Director Brian L. Libman acquired 168,271 shares of this consumer lending platform, paying $5.19 per share for a total amount of $873,984. 241,730 of these shares were purchased indirectly through a trust.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Finance Of America Companies Inc. here.
P/E: 3.44 | Forward P/E: 2.16 | Industry P/E: N/A |
P/S: 0.16 | Price/Book: 1.81 | EV/EBITDA: N/A |
Market Cap: $317.97M | Avg. Daily Volume: 723,281 | 52 Week Range: $4.965 – $11.665 |
You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.
Notable Insider Sales:
1. Walmart Inc. (WMT): $151.45
Shares of Walmart were sold by 2 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Walmart Inc. here.
P/E: 42.63 | Forward P/E: 24.12 | Industry P/E: 33.22 |
P/S: 0.75 | Price/Book: 5.26 | EV/EBITDA: 11.48 |
Market Cap: $424.39B | Avg. Daily Volume: 7,617,628 | 52 Week Range: $126.28 – $153.66 |
2. Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN): $257.32
Shares of this financial infrastructure and technology provider for the cryptoeconomy were sold by 4 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Coinbase Global, Inc. here.
P/E: 18.95 | Forward P/E: 46.53 | Industry P/E: 15.15 |
P/S: 13.67 | Price/Book: 11.68 | EV/EBITDA: 16.9 |
Market Cap: $67.39B | Avg. Daily Volume: 4,565,231 | 52 Week Range: $208 – $429.54 |
3. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (REGN): $663.27
Shares of this biotech company were sold by 6 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. here.
P/E: 18.88 | Forward P/E: 15.64 | Industry P/E: N/A |
P/S: 7.87 | Price/Book: 5.74 | EV/EBITDA: 17.16 |
Market Cap: $70.94B | Avg. Daily Volume: 780,439 | 52 Week Range: $441 – $674.07 |
4. Facebook, Inc. (FB): $359.37
Shares of Facebook were sold by 4 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Facebook, Inc. here.
P/E: 26.69 | Forward P/E: 22.5 | Industry P/E: 29.89 |
P/S: 9.67 | Price/Book: 7.35 | EV/EBITDA: 18.47 |
Market Cap: $1.01T | Avg. Daily Volume: 14,377,537 | 52 Week Range: $244.13 – $377.55 |
5. Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB): $143.7
Shares of Airbnb were sold by 2 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Airbnb, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: -2874 | Industry P/E: N/A |
P/S: 20.42 | Price/Book: 26.21 | EV/EBITDA: -29.64 |
Market Cap: $90.34B | Avg. Daily Volume: 7,510,596 | 52 Week Range: $121.5 – $219.94 |
You can view the full list of sales from this Insider Sales page.
Disclaimer: I hold a long position in B. Riley (RILY). 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.