Insiders Have Big Appetites
Insiders behind your breakfast went into memorial day weekend hungry for their own companies, but they were not alone. See who was hungry in our latest report.
$CWH, $CDTX, $TACO, $GIS, $HTLD, $K, $MTSI, $MELI, $NI, $PETQ, $QTS, $SOHU, $INT, $CARG, $PXD, $MSM
In this report, we examine stocks that C-level officers and directors bought and sold ending the week of May 25, 2018.
Insiders sell stock for many reasons, but they generally buy for just one – to make money. As a standard, we only look at material amounts of money, $100 thousand or more, as anything less could just be window dressing.
The bar is different with selling, because the natural state of management is to be sellers. This is because most companies provide significant amounts of management compensation packages as stock. Therefore, with selling, we analyze for unusual patterns, such as insiders selling 25 percent or more of their holdings or multiple insiders selling near 52 week lows.
To learn more about our strategy, visit The Insiders Fund. We welcome your comments on our analysis.
Note: We may own positions, long or short, in any of these names but do not disclose that information nor give those positions extra emphasis in our reports.
This Week’s Buys
Camping World Holdings (CWH)
The Inside Trade: Dir Schickli buys 25,000 at $19.96. Camping World was on a downtrend before the Company announced that it was changing its auditor and that its internal controls were inadequate.
Marcus Lemonis, TV personality and Chairman of the Board, had been a big buyer of stock prior to the announcement. It was good to see a director make a substantial purchase. We are long both stock and options on this name.
Cidara Therapeutics (CDTX)
The Inside Trade: CEO Stein purchases 212,766 at $4.70 as part of a $120 million secondary. Cidara has two drugs, Rezafungin, for the treatment of Candidemia and invasive Candidiasis, and Prophylaxis for Candida, PCP and Aspergillus.
Cidara Therapeutics announced that it and Rutgers University have been awarded a five-year, $5.5M partnership grant from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, The Cloudbreak immunotherapy platform is a fundamentally new approach for the treatment of infectious disease that, in a single molecule, pairs potent antimicrobials with agents that redirect the immune system to destroy fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens.
Del Taco Restaurants (TACO)
The Inside Trade: Director Walsh buys $519.7k of this fast food chain at $11.55.
General Mills (GIS)
The Inside Trade: CB Harmening buys 6000 shares at $42.
Consumer products companies have been getting hammered this year. This looks like a mildly bullish affirmation of the Company’s prospects.
Heartland Express (HTLD)
The Inside Trade: Director Hira buys 36,500 at $18.28. This is Hira’s first purchase at HTLD and it appears to be taking advantage of multi-year lows.
Dr. Tahira K. Hira has been an Independent Director of Heartland Express, Inc., since October 27, 2011. Serving as a director, Hira is also Chairperson of the Nominating Committee and a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees.
Kellogg (K)
The Inside Trade: CFO Khan buys $499.2 thousand of the beaten down cereal maker.
The iShares U.S. Consumer Goods ETF is down 8.1% YTD, making it the worst performing sector in the market.
Macom Technology Solutions Holdings (MTSI)
The Inside Trade: Chairman of the Board Ocampo buys 30,700 shares at $22.
It’s hard for us to get excited about the financial ratios and valuations of MTSI, but often times larger insider buys are about the future and not the last twelve trailing months. Macom has been working on getting GaN to replace CMOS in base stations for years. So, the fact that they have 3 projects started is huge.
5G will require more base stations then 4G and 3G to get the signal closer to the edge and Macom is the only company that will be supplying GaN.
MercadoLibre (MELI)
The Inside Trade: Director Malka buys 1708 at $292.65. Meyer Malka Rais, also known as Micky, has been a Director of MercadoLibre, Inc. since March 2013. Mr. Malka is the managing partner at Ribbit Capital LP.
It’s interesting to us that insiders are taking advantage of MELI’s price drop. Director Aquzin bought 10,000 shares at $274.47 on November 27, 2017 for $2.7 million.
NiSource (NI)
The Inside Trade: VP Mullen buys 10,000 shares at at $25.02. This utility yields a little over 3%.
We prefer Dominion Resources with a dividend yield over 5%. We don’t understand the attraction to this buy but history tells us that Mullen is more likely to be right than wrong. This purchase may be part of a officer stock purchase plan although it is an open market purchase.
PetIQ (PETQ)
The Inside Trade: Director Kennedy modestly adds to his position by purchasing $361.2 thousand worth of stock at an average price of $17.88.
PetIQ, Inc. develops, manufactures, and distributes pet medications, and other health & wellness products for dogs and cats in the United States, Canada, and Europe. We are passing on PetIQ for now.
QTS Realty Trust (QTS)
The Inside Trade:Five insiders bought $7 million worth of stock, the largest being from Chairman Williams’ purchase of $4.0 million.
QTS Realty Trust, Inc. is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 6 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space throughout North America. Data centers have been one of the few bright spots in the REIT universe.
Nonetheless, the dividend doesn’t excite us.
Sohu (SOHU)
The Inside Trade: CEO and Chairman of the Board, Zhang, buys $12.5 million, increasing his holdings by 4.7%. Sohu Inc is listed to trade on the NASDAQ and now has around 14,200 employees worldwide.
Dr. Zhang is regarded as one of the China’s Internet pioneers and was named by Forbes magazine as one of the richest men in China in 2010.
World Fuel Services (INT)
The Inside Trade: Four insiders bought $547.5 thousand of INT. World Fuel Services Corporation engages in the distribution of fuel, as well as related products and services in the aviation, marine, and land transportation industries worldwide.
Our preliminary analysis shows the company under-valued by 50% or more. INT dropped 20% the day they reported quarterly earnings. We are researching this name further.
This Week’s Sells
CarGurus, Inc (CARG)
The Inside Trade: Six insiders combine to sell $46.8 million worth of planned sales as the stock is near a 52 week low. Looking at the chart, though, we’d rather be short term long than short.
Pioneer Resources (PXD)
The Inside Trade: Six insiders take advantage of high oil and strong prices to sell this leading fracker in the Permian Basin. Six insiders sell $17.1 million worth at prices between $205 & $212. This continues a multi-week trend of selling.
MSC Industrial (MSM)
The Inside Trade: Four insiders get serious about selling $13.2 million at prices around $95 per share.