Blackrock’s Director Ford made a buy. Will the trade get a boost like bitcoin?
In this report we present three significant buys and no significant sells, an anomaly for insiders but not all too surprising as insiders are basically absent from the market as a whole. We watch all insider trades and pick the ones that matter to keep you in the know. Here is our insider buy rundown.
$BLK, $WBA, $OPK
In this report, we examine stocks that C-level officers and directors bought and sold throughout the week ending July 20, 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.
Another red flag are large planned sale programs that start without warning. We generally ignore 10 percent shareholders as they tend to be OPM (other people’s money) and not the SMART money we are trying to go to school on. We also exempt IPOs and secondaries for a variety of reasons from not being available to the public or more nefarious reasons like trying to provide support for additional fund raising.
Although this info is available for free from the SEC’s Website , Edgar, we subscribe to the Washington Service as they provide a way to manage and make sense of the vast realms of data. Charts display one month of data from date of report post at one day intervals. Credit for charts goes to yahoo.com
To learn more about our strategy, visit our website at The Insiders Fund. We welcome your comments on our analysis.
NOTE: We may own positions, long or short, in any of these names and are under no obligation to disclose that.
Significant Insider Buys
BlackRock, Inc. (BLK)
The Inside Trade: Director William (Bill) E. Ford made his second 2018 purchase. He purchased the same amount as he did on May 9th of this year – 1,000 shares. The price was an average of $507.98 with a market value of approximately $508 thousand.
This purchase comes just a day after their second quarter earnings were released in which they reported total revenues of $3.605 billion for the quarter (up 11% from last year).
Also, during this time frame (the past 2 days), Bitcoin has had gains as BlackRock hinted that they have changed their stance on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. This could be very significant due to the fact that BlackRock is one of the largest asset management firms in the world and houses the 10th largest hedge fund as well according to Investopedia. A firm this size backing cryptocurrencies could help solidify the space and increase their value and use. BlackRock would be a pioneer in the space in the sense that they further open the door for large institutional investors to back and earn from these digital currencies.
For more on BlackRock and the crypto world:
Investopedia
BlackRock Bitcoin Interest Could Set Off Bull Run
Seeking Alpha
BlackRock: Excellent 2nd-Quarter Earnings Should Please Investors
CNBC
Bitcoin extends gains as BlackRock looks into crypto and blockchain
MarketWatch
Bitcoin rallies by 5% as BlackRock reportedly weighs crypto venture
Reuters
BlackRock is evaluating cryptocurrencies, CEO Fink says
About BlackRock:
BlackRock, Inc. provides investment management services to institutional clients and to retail investors through various investment vehicles. The Company manages funds, as well as offers risk management services. BlackRock serves governments, companies, and foundations worldwide.
Wallgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA)
The Inside Trade: WBA had two insiders make significant trades on Monday July 16th. Ornella Barra the Co-COO, and Stefano Pessina the CEO and Executive Vice Chairman, purchased a combined total of 3,397,438 shares. Their average prices came out to $65.15 (1,700,000) and $63.29 (1,697,438) at a market value of $219,255,237.
Ornella Barra’s purchase may have been a new purchase, but it was a $110.8M (1,700,000) buy that washed her $108.5M (1,697,438) sale that happened on the same day. The sale of the 1,697,438 shares resulted in a 50% decrease in her ownership but was immediately replaced with the newly purchased shares.
In a twist, the buy from the CEO Stefano Pessina was actually the $108.5M sale from the COO as the 1,697,438 matched exactly and was disclosed.
It was not that simple though, this private, off-market and offshore transaction was the result of a share purchase agreement that resulted in the shares being sold for $63.92 (price equal to the 5-day volume weighted average price per share of Common Stock).
As of August 31, 2017, affiliates of Stefano Pessina had sole or shared voting power, over an aggregate of approximately 14% of WBA outstanding common stock. In January he was given a vesting to increase his ownership by 0.1 percent and this purchase added an additional 1.2% to his holdings. This leaves his ownership of approximately 15.3%, which is roughly 144,788,821 shares.
Official reasons for purchase are Pessina’s desire to increase ownership and Barra conducting estate planning.
Find more on Barra and Pessina here.
About Wallgreens Boots Alliance:
Walgreens Boots Alliance is the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destination across the U.S. and Europe. Walgreens Boots Alliance and the companies in which it has equity method investments together have a presence in more than 25 countries and employ more than 400,000 people. The company is a global leader in pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing retail and, together with the companies in which it has equity method investments, has over 13,200 stores in 11 countries as well as one of the largest global pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution networks, with over 390 distribution centers delivering to more than 230,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals each year in more than 20 countries. In addition, Walgreens Boots Alliance is one of the world’s largest purchasers of prescription drugs and many other health and wellbeing products.
Opko Health, Inc. (OPK)
The Inside Trade: The CEO and Chairman of Opko Health, Phillip Frost, has had a busy month. From 6/19 to 7/19 he acquired a total 157,019 shares at an estimated market value of just over $759,000.
Of note is the companies partner, Vifor Medical Care Renal Pharma, who has recently announced that they were brought in as partners to market a new product called RAYALDEE to the international market, mainly Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia.
RAYALDEE is designed for kidney disease and has already been approved by the FDA. Furthermore RAYALDEE was approved to treat chronic kidney disease in Canada on Wednesday, July 18.
Frost began his buying on 6/19 at an average price of $4.325 and continually purchased shares through the announcement, finishing on 7/19 while paying an average price of $5.95.
About Frost:
Phillip Frost is no stranger to the Forbes List, he was number 240 in 2017 on the Forbes 400 List and currently resides as number 924 of the Forbes Billionaires 2018 List. He is a storied health care investor and entrepreneur and founded a generic drug company called Ivax in 1987 that he sold in 2005 for $7.6 billion.
Frost has since gone on to become the CEO of Optko, the chairman of the board for of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, the director of Ladenburg Thalman, the director of Sevion Therapeutics and sits on the board of directors for Cocrystal Pharma.
About Opko Health, Inc.
Optko Health, Inc. is a healthcare company with a diversified approach. They have positioned themselves through partnership to a point where they are in multiple rapidly growing medical markets. Their business are developed in diagnostics, prostate cancer, chronic kidney disease, chemotherapy induced complications, diabetes, urology, metabolic conditions and pharmaceuticals. This is all in addition to having the nation’s third largest clinical laboratory and a sales team with numbers in the neighborhood of 400.
Significant Insider Sells
Normally we have little to no insider buys to report during earnings season. This week we have no sells that meet our criteria, an anomaly in an of itself. As always, we are monitoring all kinds of insider trades and will keep you informed.