In an unusually volatile week, we saw significant market weakness earlier in the week probably driven by forced selling and a relief rally in the end. Insiders once again stepped up their purchases to take advantage of prices, which in some cases are down anywhere from 50% to 90% from their peaks. While overall insider buying went up by a little over $11 million last week, both the number of insiders and the number of companies with insider buying went up significantly. The last week of April saw 207 insiders across 98 companies purchase shares. This went up to 407 insiders across 169 companies in the first week of May and 584 insiders purchasing stock across 281 companies last week.
We wrote about Uber in our Broken Growth series of articles on Friday, May 6th and incidentally the same day, Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi happened to buy 200,000 shares for $5.35 million as detailed in a form 4 filing filed on Monday, May 9th. We wrote the following about Uber in that article,
The appeal with Uber has always been that the network and software they built could be expanded to other verticals and we saw this play out in delivery with restaurants first and then with groceries. The company recently expanded its partnership with Albertsons (ACI) and its various brands including Safeway, Randalls, etc. to over 2,000 stores. This shift to delivery helped the company in a material way during the early phases of the pandemic when their mobility division took a big hit.
The new vertical with a lot of potential for Uber is freight, where they connect shippers like Costco, CVS, Walgreens, Home Depot, H.E.B, Colgate-Palmolive, P&G and Abbott with carriers. While freight represented less than 7% of Uber’s gross bookings of $26.45 billion in Q1 2022, the division is growing rapidly.
In case you missed it, Mr. Khosrowshahi’s letter to employees highlighting the renewed focus on generating free cash flow is worth reading. If the company can demonstrate that it can generate free cash flow instead of chasing growth at all costs, investors might warm up to the stock, which continued dropping last week.
It was also interesting to see Mr. Schultz pick up $10 million worth of Starbucks (SBUX) stock and repeat purchases by the insiders of B. Riley (RILY).
Welcome to edition 619 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying increased last week with insiders purchasing $187.78 million of stock compared to $176.54 million in the week prior. Selling also increased to $547.68 million compared to $488.72 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 2.92. In other words, insiders sold almost 3 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 2.77.
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Notable Insider Buys:
1. Starbucks Corporation (SBUX): $75.6
Interim CEO Howard D. Schultz acquired 137,500 shares of Starbucks, paying $72.67 per share for a total amount of $9.99 million. Mr. Schultz increased his stake by 0.71% to 19,534,460 shares with this purchase.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Starbucks Corporation here.
P/E: 20.43 | Forward P/E: 21.91 | Industry P/E: 286.80 |
P/S: 2.86 | Price/Book: N/A | EV/EBITDA: 16.36 |
Market Cap: $86.71B | Avg. Daily Volume: 10,911,101 | 52 Week Range: $68.39 – $126.32 |
2. B. Riley Financial, Inc. (RILY): $48.32
Shares of B. Riley Financial were acquired by 3 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for B. Riley Financial, Inc. here.
P/E: 3.2 | Forward P/E: N/A | Industry P/E: 11.96 |
P/S: 0.85 | Price/Book: 2.06 | EV/EBITDA: N/A |
Market Cap: $1.35B | Avg. Daily Volume: 309,659 | 52 Week Range: $44.3 – $91.24 |
3. Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER): $24.39
Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi acquired 200,000 shares of Uber, paying $26.73 per share for a total amount of $5.35 million. Mr. Khosrowshahi increased his stake by 16.38% to 1,420,968 shares with this purchase.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Uber Technologies, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: 1219.5 | Industry P/E: 56.92 |
P/S: 2.74 | Price/Book: 3.29 | EV/EBITDA: -23.23 |
Market Cap: $47.89B | Avg. Daily Volume: 35,269,870 | 52 Week Range: $21.69 – $52.36 |
4. Luminar Technologies, Inc. (LAZR): $10.36
Chairperson, President & CEO Austin Russell acquired 600,000 shares of this automotive technology company, paying $8.77 per share for a total amount of $5.26 million. Mr. Russell increased his stake by 387.10% to 755,000 shares with this purchase.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Luminar Technologies, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: -18.5 | Industry P/E: N/A |
P/S: 113.39 | Price/Book: 18.21 | EV/EBITDA: -19.86 |
Market Cap: $3.62B | Avg. Daily Volume: 4,769,090 | 52 Week Range: $8 – $26.39 |
5. ViewRay, Inc. (VRAY): $3.3
Shares of this magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) manufacturer were acquired by 7 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for ViewRay, Inc. here.
P/E: N/A | Forward P/E: -6.35 | Industry P/E: 42.70 |
P/S: 8.49 | Price/Book: 3.48 | EV/EBITDA: -3.37 |
Market Cap: $595.51M | Avg. Daily Volume: 1,785,308 | 52 Week Range: $2.39 – $8.25 |
You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.
Notable Insider Sales:
1. Murphy USA Inc. (MUSA): $248.8
Shares of this retail motor fuel products company were sold by 4 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Murphy USA Inc. here.
P/E: 16.68 | Forward P/E: 19.35 | Industry P/E: 14.62 |
P/S: 0.39 | Price/Book: 7.69 | EV/EBITDA: 9.4 |
Market Cap: $6.02B | Avg. Daily Volume: 312,998 | 52 Week Range: $126.56 – $251.51 |
2. BancFirst Corporation (BANF): $82.03
President and CEO and Director David E. Rainbolt sold 142,938 shares of this regional bank for $83.55, generating $11.94 million from the sale.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for BancFirst Corporation here.
P/E: 16.95 | Forward P/E: 16.61 | Industry P/E: 8.69 |
P/S: 5.49 | Price/Book: 2.28 | EV/EBITDA: N/A |
Market Cap: $2.68B | Avg. Daily Volume: 150,356 | 52 Week Range: $53.77 – $86.82 |
3. Pfizer Inc. (PFE): $49.92
Shares of Pfizer were sold by 3 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Pfizer Inc. here.
P/E: 12.95 | Forward P/E: 0.98 | Industry P/E: 22.97 |
P/S: 3.47 | Price/Book: 3.63 | EV/EBITDA: 8.97 |
Market Cap: $281.94B | Avg. Daily Volume: 28,419,885 | 52 Week Range: $38.48 – $61.71 |
4. Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (LSCC): $49.38
Shares of this semiconductor company were sold by 3 insiders:
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Lattice Semiconductor Corporation here.
P/E: 73.7 | Forward P/E: 26.41 | Industry P/E: 21.30 |
P/S: 13.19 | Price/Book: 16.47 | EV/EBITDA: 52.34 |
Market Cap: $6.8B | Avg. Daily Volume: 1,486,246 | 52 Week Range: $43.59 – $85.45 |
5. T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS): $126.33
President and CEO Michael G. Sievert sold 40,000 shares of T-Mobile for $122.66, generating $4.91 million from the sale.
You can view the list of recent insider transactions for T-Mobile US, Inc. here.
P/E: 56.4 | Forward P/E: 20.41 | Industry P/E: 26.05 |
P/S: 1.97 | Price/Book: 2.26 | EV/EBITDA: 10 |
Market Cap: $158.36B | Avg. Daily Volume: 5,061,391 | 52 Week Range: $101.51 – $150.2 |
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.