This week, the largest purchases were made by insiders of the mid-market investment bank B. Riley (RILY). As discussed briefly in our last Event Driven Monitor, B. Riley’s stock dropped sharply last week following the release of a short seller report. We will be discussing B. Riley and this short seller report in more detail in our February Mid-Month Update later this week.
For this insider weekends article, we will be focusing on a company that just barely missed our list of top 5 insider purchases, Align Technology Inc. (ALGN), best known for developing Invisalign, an alternative to the traditional dental braces.
Align Technology has stood out to us in the past due to its insider transactions. During the pandemic, Align’s stock price skyrocketed, hitting highs of well above $700. Nearly all insider transactions by Align executives and Directors from 2020 to 2021 were sales, with the exception of a few option exercises:
As a result, when we saw insiders begin to purchase shares in 2022, we thought a closer look at the company was warranted. When Align’s CEO, Joseph Hogan, purchased nearly $2 million worth of shares, we wrote the following in a May 2022 Insider Weekends Article:
There have been very few insider purchases of Align but Mr. Hogan’s timing both with buying and selling has been impeccable. He last purchased $1 million worth of shares in August 2019 at an average price just below $200. He also sold $46.64 million worth of shares at an average price of $699.54 in August 2021. This was an opportunistic sale unrelated to any option exercises as you can see here.