After years, decades even of financial repression, investors are able to earn something from their risk-free savings. It could not have come at a better time for the nation’s seniors. According to the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau, more than 56 million adults ages 65 and older live in the United States, accounting for about 16.9% of the nation’s population. It’s time for them to step down off the roller coaster ride of the equity markets. One of the cardinal rules of financial planning is that you get more risk-averse as you age. Now you can actually earn a return of 4%-5% on your savings with risk-free short-term Treasuries thanks to the Fed’s fastest and largest rate hikes in history.
The Fed has taken on its solemn duties to be the nation’s stalwart against the pernicious evils of inflation. The icing on the cake is that inflation is rapidly falling. These Treasury yields look like actual inflation-adjusted returns, although time will be this arbiter.
This has not gone unnoticed, as $46 trillion has left equities in the last year. How much was vapor in ridiculously high prices is not knowable, but it’s safe to assume some of what’s left is sitting in the safety of Treasuries and money markets. I’ve heard numbers of $42 billion leaving equities since the Bank of Japan interest rate hike.
There were a handful of notable insider buys. Some of these trades make sense, some seem like layups, and others just leave me scratching my head; what were they thinking?
Name: Joe E Kiani
Position: CEO/Chairman
Transaction Date: 2022-12-15 Shares Bought: 7,040 Average Price Paid: $144.79 Cost: $1,019,352
Company: Masimo Corp. (MASI)
Masimo is a multinational medical technology provider that creates, produces, and sells a range of noninvasive monitoring systems and hospital automation solutions. The company’s goal is to decrease the price of medical care while improving patient outcomes. Patient monitoring solutions typically include a monitor or circuit board, specialized single-patient use, or reusable sensors, software, and cables. Through its direct sales force, distributors, and partners with original equipment manufacturers, the company offers its products to hospitals, emergency medical service providers, home care providers, long-term care facilities, doctor’s offices, veterinary clinics, and consumers. In May 1989, the company was incorporated in California; in May 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Measure-through Motion and Low PerfusionTM pulse oximetry, also known as Masimo Signal Extraction Technology® pulse oximetry, is the company’s main line of business.
Joe established the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare. To provide access to high-quality healthcare and enhance lives worldwide, this charity collaborates closely with institutions, including the Carter Center, Smile Train, and United4Oxygen. Soon after, he was named the co-inventor of “modern pulse oximetry,” as it is currently known. His invention altered how doctors utilize the “fifth vital sign” by reducing false alarms in pulse oximetry by 95%. He expanded the company from a “garage start-up” to a prosperous publicly listed enterprise that employs more than 5,000 people globally and tracks more than 200 million individuals annually. He and his team currently hold over 600 patents, including the creation of measure-through-motion pulse oximetry, and they have contributed to the solution of many “unsolvable” clinical problems.
Opinion: We have written about this in detail in the past, as this is Mr. Kiani’s second round of recent buying. Check out the blog on November 19th, Masi Apple Showdown coming soon to a Screen near You.
The ruling on Masimo’s injunction request at the International Trade Commission to pull the Apple Watch off the market for violating their pulse oximetry patent IP has been moved from mid-December to no later than January 10th, 2023. Kiani has wagered about $6 million in the last month buying his company’s shares. MASI is a vigorous opponent even for a company as powerful as Apple. They sued Phillips successfully for $600 million and wound up with a licensing deal that may be the blueprint for this outcome. If they do make some progress at the ITC, they should find the FTC and FCC more amenable to enforcement action against the tech giants than ever in the past.
Background: MASI has moved full bore into the consumable wearables market, taking Apple head-on. This seems like a quixotic effort and more likely will result in Apple licensing the technology from them at a handsome profit. MASI would do well then to abandon this consumer market and sell its business to Google, which has more money than apparent opportunities based on its latest announced $2 billion of the NFL Sunday Ticket.
Name: John Jr Rakolta
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2022-12-21 Shares Bought: 11,000 Average Price Paid: $71.38 Cost: $785,180
Company: Agree Realty Corp. (ADC)
Agree Realty Corp is a fully integrated REIT that focuses on owning, acquiring, developing, and managing retail properties that are net leased to top-tier tenants in the sector. Richard Agree, the company’s current executive chairman, created it in 1971, and its common stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1994. The Operating Partnership, of which the Company is the only general partner and in which it owned a 99.5% common interest as of December 31, 2021, is where all of the Company’s assets are kept and through which all of its activities are carried out, directly or indirectly. The Operating Partnership’s partnership agreement says that, as the only general partner, the Company is in charge of and has full control over how the Operating Partnership is run.
John Rakolta is the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition’s co-chairman at the moment. He serves on the boards of eight other businesses. He formerly held the positions of Chairman and CEO of Walbridge Aldinger LLC, Chairman, and CEO of The Walbridge Group, Inc., and member of the executive committee of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Marquette University awarded him a degree in undergraduate studies.
Opinion: It’s probably a matter of who the tenant is in retail. Without going into a full-blown analysis by property and market, I’d say that the dividend yield of 4.03% is borderline high enough. There seems to be little room for error in this new interest rate environment of higher for longer.
Name: Arlen Dale Nordhagen
Position: Chairman
Transaction Date: 2022-12-16 Shares Bought: 33,500 Average Price Paid: $36.76 Cost: $1,231,315
Company: National Storage Affiliates Trust (NSA)
National Storage Affiliates Trust was established in Maryland as a fully integrated, self-administered, and self-managed real estate investment trust. To conduct the business, which is centered on the ownership, operation, and acquisition of self-storage properties primarily located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas across the United States, the company serves as the sole general partner of the operating partnership subsidiary, NSA OP, LP, a Delaware limited partnership formed on February 13, 2013. As of December 31, 2021, the firm has ownership stakes and was the operator of 1,050 self-storage facilities spread over 42 states and Puerto Rico.
Arlen D. Nordhagen is the Executive Chairman of the Board of Trustees and a co-founder of NSA. Arlen co-founded SecurCare Self Storage, the forerunner of NSA, in 1988 and has worked in the self-storage sector for more than 30 years. From 1999 through 2013, he led SecurCare as president and chief executive officer. Arlen earned a master’s degree in business administration with honors from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with distinction from the University of North Dakota. Arlen founded MMM Healthcare, Inc., the largest Medicare Advantage health insurance carrier in Puerto Rico.
Opinion: NSA looks like a buy to me. Repeated insider buying with a hefty dividend yield of 6.02%in a relatively stable sector of the real estate market looks attractive.
Name: William H Lenehan
Position: CEO
Transaction Date: 2022-12-16 Shares Bought: 9,625 Average Price Paid: $25.99 Cost: $250,154
Company: Four Corners Property Trust Inc. (FCPT)
Four Corners Property Trust Inc. is a Maryland business and real estate investment trust that owns, buys, and rents buildings for use in the restaurant and retail sectors. Most of the company’s income comes from renting out properties to tenants on a “net lease” basis, which means that the tenants are mostly responsible for ongoing costs like utilities, property taxes, insurance, common area maintenance charges, and maintenance and repair costs. The company focuses on properties that bring in money and are rented to good tenants in key places across the United States. The company also makes money from franchise agreements with Darden that allow it to run the Kerrow Restaurant Operating Business.
William H. Lenehan is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Four Corners Property Trust, Inc. He is also on the board of Macy’s, Inc. He formerly held the positions of Chief Executive Officer for Granite Real Estate Investment Trust and Chief Executive Officer & Director for Granite Real Estate, Inc., as well as Principal at Farallon Capital Management LLC and Principal at CIBC World Markets Corp. He graduated from Claremont McKenna College and the University of Oregon.
Opinion: 5.08% dividend yield will work when and if interest rates reverse their climb.
Name: Teague Aj
Position: CEO
Transaction Date: 2022-12-20 Shares Bought: 21,150 Average Price Paid: $23.60 Cost: $499,159
Company: Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD)
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is a Delaware limited partnership that is traded on the public market. Its common units trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker code “EPD.” The preferred units of the corporation are not publicly traded. In April 1998, the company was set up to own and run some EPCO natural gas liquids operations. It is a prominent North American supplier of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil, petrochemicals, and refined products. From an economic standpoint, the corporation is held by limited partners. The partnership is managed by Enterprise GP, which has a non-economic general partner stake in the company. EPO and its consolidated subsidiaries handle the majority of the company’s business activities.
Mr. Teague has been a director of Enterprise GP since November 2010 and has served as Co-Chief Executive Officer since January 2020. He is also a member of the Capital Projects Committee. Mr. Teague was Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise GP from January 2016 to January 2020, Chief Operating Officer from November 2010 to December 2015, and Executive Vice President from November 2010 to February 2013. From November 1999 to November 2010, he was Executive Vice President of EPGP, as well as a director from July 2008 to November 2010, and Chief Operating Officer from September 2010 to November 2010.
Opinion: We are a buyer of this vital infrastructure play with an above average yield of 8%
Name: Jack Hightower
Position: Chief Executive Officer/10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2022-12-21 Shares Bought: 50,000 Average Price Paid: $21.91 Cost: $1,095,460
Company: HighPeak Energy Inc. (HPK)
HighPeak Energy is an independent crude oil, and natural gas company focused on acquiring, developing, and producing crude oil, NGLs, and natural gas reserves. It was founded in Delaware on October 29, 2019. The Company’s assets are mainly situated in Howard County, Texas, a part of the Midland Basin’s northeastern region and home to a lot of crude oil. The Signal Peak area is located in the south, and the northern Flat Top area is where the Company has two sizable contiguous land positions focusing on the Howard County region of the Midland Basin, in particular, HighPeak Energy. The Company’s assets include rights, titles, and interests in natural gas and crude oil properties, most of which are situated in Howard County, Texas, a Midland Basin region rich in crude oil.
Mr. Hightower has been running E&P platforms in the oil and gas business for more than 49 years. From 2011 until 2013, Mr. Hightower held the positions of Chairman, President, and CEO of Bluestem Energy Partners, LP. Mr. Hightower held the positions of Chairman, President, and CEO of Celero Energy II, LP, from 2006 to 2009, as well as Celero Energy, LP from 2004 to 2005, before founding Bluestem. Mr. Hightower started Celero after being chairman, president, and CEO of Pure Resources, Inc., which grew to become the 11th largest independent E&P company in North America that was traded on a public stock exchange. Unocal made a bid for the Pure Resources shares it did not already hold in October 2002.
Opinion: Jack is back and is putting his money where his mouth is.
Name: Matthew J Gould
Position: VP
Transaction Date: 2022-12-19 Shares Bought: 2,897 Average Price Paid: $19.95 Cost: $57,792
Transaction Date: 2022-12-16 Shares Bought: 9,273 Average Price Paid: $19.87 Cost: $184,256
Transaction Date: 2022-12-19 Shares Bought: 14,803 Average Price Paid: $19.55 Cost: $289,454
Transaction Date: 2022-12-21 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $19.83 Cost: $198,255
Company: BRT Apartments Corp.(BRT)
Name: Jeffrey Gould
Position: President & CEO
Transaction Date: 2022-12-16 Shares Bought: 9,273 Average Price Paid: $19.87 Cost: $184,256
Transaction Date: 2022-12-21 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $19.83 Cost: $198,255
Transaction Date: 2022-12-19 Shares Bought: 15,179 Average Price Paid: $19.56 Cost: $296,895
Company: BRT Apartments Corp.(BRT)
BRT Apartments Corp. is an internally managed real estate investment trust, or REIT, that specializes in the acquisition, management, and, to a lesser extent, the development of multifamily properties. The company’s primary interests include multifamily property ownership, management, and development. The company typically owns multifamily properties like townhomes, mid-rise apartments, or garden apartments that offer residents access to amenities like a clubhouse, swimming pool, laundry rooms, and cable television. The typical length of a residential lease is one year, and security deposits up to the amount of one month’s rent may be required. These properties have a large percentage of their units leased at market rates.
Businessman Matthew J. Gould has served as the CEO of 5 separate organizations. He currently holds the positions of Chairman of Gould Investors LP, Director and Senior Vice President of Majestic Property Management Corp., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Georgetown Partners, Inc., Chief Executive Officer of Rainbow Realty Group LLC, and Chief Executive Officer of Rainbow MJ Advisors LLC. Majestic Property Management Corp. is a subsidiary of Gould Investors LP. In addition, Mr. Gould serves as chairman of One Liberty Properties, Inc., director and senior vice president of BRT Apartments Corp., and senior vice president of REIT Management Corp. He is also on the boards of Sportsvite LLC and Halsa Holdings LLC. Both the University of Michigan and Yeshiva University awarded Mr. Gould undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Jeffrey A. Gould now holds the positions of Director and Senior Vice President of One Liberty Properties, Inc., President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director at BRT Apartments Corp. In addition, Mr. Gould serves as managing general partner at Gould Investors LP, principal at UJA-Federation of New York; member of Young Presidents’ Organization, Inc., World Presidents’ Organization, and Chief Executives Organization, Inc.; principal at Federation Employment & Guidance Service, Inc.; director and senior vice president at Georgetown Partners, Inc.; and member-New York Finance Committee at Real Estate Board of New York, Inc.
Opinion: Apartment REITs are where you want to be in this interest rate-sensitive sector. Steady and continuous insider buying builds confidence in this 5.12% current yield. REITs are one way to keep up with inflation and produce real yields over nominal yields.
Name: Jason H Brady
Position: President
Transaction Date: 2022-12-22 Shares Bought: 30,000 Average Price Paid: $14.19 Cost: $425,763.00
Company: Thornburg Income Builder Opportunities Trust (TBLD)
Thornburg Income Builder Opportunities Trust is a closed-end fund. The goal of the trust’s investments is to bring in income now and increase the total return. The trust tries to reach its goal by putting at least 80% of its managed assets directly or indirectly into a wide range of securities that make money. The Trust invests in both stock and debt securities of firms based in the United States and across the world. Its options strategy aims to increase risk-adjusted returns while making money now from option premiums.
Jason Brady is the president and CEO of Thornburg Investment Management. He is in charge of the company’s overall strategy and direction. He is also the head of the firm’s global fixed-income investing division and a portfolio manager for a number of strategies, including the Thornburg Investment Income Builder. Jason was appointed president and CEO on January 1, 2016. He joined the business in 2006 and was promoted to portfolio manager and managing director in 2007. His book Income Investment: An Intelligent Approach to Profiting from Bonds, Stocks, and Money Markets, is a step-by-step approach to income investing. Jason has a BA with honors in English and environmental biology from Dartmouth College and an MBA with emphasis in analytical finance and accounting from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Opinion: This is a new closed-in trust selling at an 18% discount with a very healthy unleveraged yield of 8.74% I’m not crazy about the fees charged, but this is not something an investor could likely do on his own as 20% of the portfolio is in foreign country investment grade bonds.
Name: Mark L Baum
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2022-12-12 Shares Bought: 25,000 Average Price Paid: $13.39 Cost: $334,750
Company: Harrow Health Inc. (HROW)
Name: Martin A Makary
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2022-12-21 Shares Bought: 25,000 Average Price Paid: $13.37 Cost: $334,250
Company: Harrow Health Inc. (HROW)
Harrow Health Inc, via its subsidiaries and deconsolidated firms, focuses on the research, manufacture, and distribution of new drugs that provide distinct competitive advantages and address unmet market requirements. The corporation owns and runs ImprimisRx, which is one of the largest eye drug companies in the country. In addition to ImprimisRx, the company has non-controlling equity stakes in Harrow subsidiaries Eton Pharmaceuticals, Surface Ophthalmics, and Melt Pharmaceuticals. The company just made a new subsidiary called Visionology, and they are looking for ways to make more. Surface and Melt are making a lot of potential medicines for which the company has royalties.
Mr. Baum has made an effort to match his professional interests with his personal principles throughout his career. Mr. Baum attended Sharpstown High School in Houston, Texas, where he was raised. After graduating from college and law school in 1999 and passing the California Bar Exam, Mr. Baum launched YesRx, an online pharmacy that caters to Californians who are HIV-positive. By capitalizing his first investment fund thanks to the success of YesRx, Mr. Baum started managing funds as a primary investor for ten years, taking part in more than 200 stock and debt transactions. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiary ImprimisRx were established by Mr. Baum in 2011 with the goal of giving patients and doctors access to cutting-edge prescription medications at reasonable pricing.
Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., has been a corporate director since March 2022. Dr. Makary is a physician and the Chief of Islet Transplant Surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he has worked since 2002. Dr. Makary is a well-known medical advocate and public policy expert who writes for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of two New York Times bestselling healthcare books and has authored over 250 scientific peer-reviewed publications on topics such as organizational culture, surgical innovation, vulnerable populations, and healthcare delivery redesign. Dr. Makary has served on the World Health Organization’s executive team and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Opinion: Nice to see insiders buying at the top. We usually don’t see that as they tend to value buyers or bottom fishers. Buying at the top signals that business is good and likely will get better.
Name: James W Barge
Position: CFO
Transaction Date: 2022-12-20 Shares Bought: 54,000 Average Price Paid: $5.69 Cost: $307,154
Company: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF-B)
Lionsgate includes top-tier motion picture and television studio activities coordinated with the STARZ premium global subscription platform to provide customers worldwide with a distinctive and diverse portfolio of entertainment. The company’s 17,000-title library and rich collection of classic film and television properties support its film, television, subscription, and location-based entertainment operations. The company uses three reportable business sectors to manage and provide operating results: media networks, motion pictures, and television production. The production of film and television content and the domestic and international theatrical release of the company’s films both experienced delays. Even though most film and television production has resumed, the industry still experiences production interruptions depending on the local environment.
James W. Barge is now the Chief Financial Officer of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. He is also a member-emeritus of the boards of Scholastic Corp., Lions Gate International Ltd., and StarzPlay UK Ltd., as well as a member of the Terry College of Business. He previously held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Viacom, Inc., Partner at Ernst & Young LLP, Partner at Warner Bros LLC, Chief Accounting Officer, Senior Vice President and Controller of Time Warner, Inc., and Treasurer & Director of United Neighborhood Houses of New York. Mr. Barge earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia.
Opinion: This is one of the head-scratchers. Insiders continue to accumulate shares at ever-lower prices. You have to believe that many, if not all, video streamers, Netflix, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc., are poking around here.
Name: Anthony Noto
Position: CEO
Transaction Date: 2022-12-15 Shares Bought: 525,000 Average Price Paid: $4.59 Cost: $2,411,243
Company: SoFi Technologies Inc. (SOFI)
SoFi Technologies Inc. is a one-stop shop for financial services that is focused on its members. Its Lending and Financial Services products allow members to borrow, save, spend, invest and protect their money. Customers are referred to as “members” by the firm. The objective of the firm is to assist members in achieving financial independence to fulfill their dreams. The company started up in 2011 and has made a set of financial solutions that can only be done quickly, easily, and with a wide range of options on an integrated digital platform. Everything the firm does now is oriented around assisting members in “Getting Your Money Right,” and the company strives to develop and create methods for members to attain this objective.
Anthony is the CEO of SoFi and a board member of the company. Before joining SoFi, he served as the company’s chief operational officer since November 2016 and its chief financial officer since July 2014. Before joining Twitter, Anthony worked at Goldman Sachs for over four years as the co-head of global TMT investment banking. He started working at Goldman Sachs in 1999 and was in charge of research on communications media and the Internet until 2004, when he was made a partner. Anthony spent almost three years as the National Football League’s chief financial officer before returning to Goldman.
Opinion: Anthony Noto dreams of a one-stop financial shop that actually works. SoFi’s purchase of Galileo Technologies gives them the technical chops to connect to all financial backends. They might just pull off what no one has yet to be able to do. I wouldn’t bet much, if anything at all, just yet.
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Insiders sell the stock for many reasons, but they generally buy for just one – to make money. You’ve always heard the best information is inside information. Everyone who has any experience at all in the stock market pays close attention to what insiders are doing. After all, who knows a business better than the people running it? Officers, directors, and 10% owners are required to inform the public through a Form 4 Filing any transaction, buy, sell, exercise, or any other within 48 hours of doing so. This info is available for free from the SEC’s Web site, Edgar, although we subscribe to SECForm4 as they provide a way to manage and make sense of the vast realms of data. I’ve tried a lot of vendors. SECForm4 is one of the smaller ones but I like supporting Frank. He is not arrogant. He’s helpful and has great prices. He also trades on his own data so I like people that eat what they kill.
The bar is different from selling because the natural state of management is to be seller. This is because most companies provide significant amounts of management compensation packages as stock and options. Therefore, with selling, we analyze unusual patterns, such as insiders selling 25 percent or more of their holdings or multiple insiders selling near 52-week lows. Another red flag is large planned sale programs that start without warning. Unfortunately, the public information disclosure requirements about these programs, referred to as Rule 10b5-1 is horrendously poor. Also planned sales that just pop up out of nowhere are basically sales and are seeking cover under the Sarbanes Oxley corporate welfare clause. I also generally ignore 10 percent shareholders as they tend to be OPM (other people’s money) and perhaps not the smart money we are trying to read the tea leaves on.
Of course, insiders can also be wrong about their Company’s prospects. Don’t let anyone fool you into believing they never make mistakes. Do your own analysis. They can easily be wrong, and in many cases, maybe most cases have no more idea what the future may hold than you or me. In short, you can lose money following them. We have and we curse aloud, what were they thinking!
We like Fly on the Wall for keeping up with what events might be happening, analysts’ comments, and whatever else could be moving the stock. Dow Jones news service is an essential tool but many services pick up their feed like they do Bloomberg. For quick financial analysis, it’s hard to beat Old School Value.
No one tracks and understands insider behavior better than us. We’ve been doing it religiously since 2001 when I quit being an insider myself and devoted myself full-time to managing my personal investments. Needless to say, past good fortune is no guarantee of future success. We may own positions, long or short, in any of these names and are under no obligation to disclose that. We welcome your comments on our analysis.
This blog is solely for educational purposes and the author’s own amusement. Investing with The Insiders Fund is for qualified investors and by Prospectus only. Nothing herein should be construed otherwise. THE INSIDERS FUND invests in companies at or near prices that management has been willing to invest significant amounts of their own money in. If you would like to hear more about how you can get involved with the Insiders Fund, please schedule some time on my calendar.
Prosperous Trading,
Harvey Sax
