When I started developing the Insiders Fund’s strategy in 2001, I knew I would miss out on some of the all-time greatest investments since founders of disruptive companies are loaded to the gills with their own company’s stock and don’t need to buy more of it. That was all right with me. I was willing to miss the potential home runs if by avoiding companies without insiders buying, I could avoid the scams, frauds, and charlatans that populate the financial world. Generally, crooks and cons don’t buy their own stock, but there are exceptions to that as well. Insiders may have as close to perfect information about their companies, but their motives are not always pure. Last week we mentioned we had that rare occurrence, a disruptive company with insider buying. Although not a huge buy, it’s good to see more insider buying in Vicarious Surgical.
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Name: Daniel H Schulman
Position: President and CEO
Transaction Date: 2023-02-17 Shares Bought: 26,065 Average Price Paid: $76.17 Cost: $1,985,306.00
Company: PayPal Holdings Inc.(PYPL)
PayPal Holdings, Inc., founded in Delaware in January 2015, is a major technology platform that facilitates digital payments and streamlines commerce experiences for businesses and customers across the globe. PayPal is dedicated to democratizing financial services to enhance consumers’ financial health and expand economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and enterprises of all kinds throughout the globe. The firm’s mission is to allow merchants and customers to manage and transfer their money anywhere in the globe in the markets served by the company, at any time, on any platform, and with any device when making or receiving payments, including person-to-person payments. The company’s key values are Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Well-being, mirrored in the leadership principles. These values are the driving factors behind the purpose and the cornerstone of the operational philosophy.
Daniel H. Schulman is a businessman who has led eight different firms. He is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of PayPal Holdings, Inc., and the President and CEO of PayPal CA Ltd. Mr. Schulman is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., the International Business Council, and the Lead Director Network and serves on the boards of 8 other firms. Mr. Schulman has previously served as Non-Executive Chairman of NortonLifeLock, Inc., President & Chief Executive Officer of Booking Holdings, Inc., and President & Chief Executive Officer of Priceline.com LLC, Group President-Enterprise Group at American Express Co., President & CEO-Technology Platform Business at eBay, Inc., President-Consumer Markets Division at AT&T, Inc., and President at AT&T WorldNet, Advisor at Greycroft LLC Mr. Schulman attended Middlebury College and earned an MBA from The Leonard N Stern School of Business.
Opinion: I’ve been struggling with this. Does PayPal add any real value to the user in the form of lower prices, better access to payments systems or is is just a pretty face on the basic card processing business of Visa and MasterCard? This is an unusual buy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a departing CEO buy so much stock or any stock at all. PayPal Holdings announced on February 9th that President and CEO Dan Schulman has informed the Board of Directors of his intention to retire from PayPal on December 31, 2023.
Come to think of it, someone name Elon Musk was in the news recently talking about how Twitter should have a payment system built into it. He called it the X App- something that does a lot of things, like maybe WeChat. After all, that’s where he started- Paypal. Maybe it’s a perfect circle.
Name: James B Stallings JR
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-16 Shares Bought: 2,200 Average Price Paid: $68.45 Cost: $150,597.00
Company: Fidelity National Information Services Inc.(FIS)
Name: Jeffrey A Goldstein
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-16 Shares Bought: 2,224 Average Price Paid: $67.55 Cost: $150,231.00
Company: Fidelity National Information Services Inc.(FIS)
Name: Ellen R Alemany
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-15 Shares Bought: 2,200 Average Price Paid: $67.09 Cost: $147,589.00
Company: Fidelity National Information Services Inc.(FIS)
Name: Louise M Parent
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-15 Shares Bought: 2,247 Average Price Paid: $66.99 Cost: $150,529.00
Company: Fidelity National Information Services Inc.(FIS)
Name: Vijay D’Silva
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-16 Shares Bought: 2,210 Average Price Paid: $66.88 Cost: $147,805.00
Company: Fidelity National Information Services Inc.(FIS)
Name: Kenneth T Lamenck
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-15 Shares Bought: 2,246 Average Price Paid: $66.79 Cost: $150,004.00
Company: Fidelity National Information Services Inc.(FIS)
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. is a worldwide leader in providing technology solutions to merchants, banks, and capital markets businesses. Employees at the firm are committed to improving the way the world pays, banks, and invests by using size, deep experience, and data-driven insights. The company assists clients in employing technology in novel ways to address business-critical issues and provide outstanding consumer experiences. Organic growth has been fueled by various sources, including customer business expansion, internal development of new solutions that improve client offers, and sales and marketing initiatives to broaden the customer base and target markets. Acquisitions have provided additional solutions and services that complement or improve offerings, diversify the client base, increase regional coverage, and allow entrance into new and appealing adjacent markets that correspond with the strategic goals.
Mr. Stallings is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of PS27 Ventures, LLC, a technology-focused private investment company. He has been actively engaged in the launch of scores of new FinTech, HealthTech, and SaaS firms. Mr. Stallings has worked at IBM’s Systems and Technology Division as the General Manager of Global Markets. Mr. Stallings has worked for IBM Corporation in several capacities, including General Manager, Enterprise Systems, IBM Systems, and Technology Group. Mr. Stallings now serves on UGI Corporation and Cannae Holdings, Inc boards. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree and served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps. Mr. Stallings is a Trustee of the Folded Flag Foundation, which grants scholarships to the children of dead soldiers in the United States military.
Mr. Goldstein is a Senior Adviser at Canapi Ventures and an Advisor Emeritus at Hellman & Friedman LLC, both venture capital firms. From December 2016 until 2018, he was the Chief Executive Officer of SpringHarbor Financial Group LLC. Mr. Goldstein also held the position of Managing Director at Hellman & Friedman. From 2009 to 2011, he served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Goldstein joined the World Bank as a managing director in 1999 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2003. Mr. Goldstein has been on the Board of Directors of the Bank of New York Mellon since 2014.
Ms. Alemany now serves as Vice Chairperson of First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and First Citizens Bank & Trust Corporation. From October 2015 until January 2022, Ms. Alemany was the Chairperson, CEO, and President of CIT Group, Inc., as well as the Chairwoman, CEO, and President of CIT Bank, N.A., a subsidiary of CIT Group, Inc. From 2008 until October 2013, Ms. Alemany served as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of The Royal Bank of Scotland Citizens Financial Group. Ms. Alemany formerly served as the Chief Executive Officer of Global Transaction Services at Citibank/Citigroup from 2006 to 2007, after a twenty-year career with the bank. Ms. Alemany is a director of First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. Ms. Alemany formerly worked at Automatic Data Processing as a director.
Ms. Parent worked as Of Counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP from 2014 until December 31, 2021. Ms. Parent was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of American Express Corporation from 1993 until her retirement in 2013. She was also a director of American Express Travel Related Services Corporation, its primary operational company, and American Express Centurion Bank, a U.S. banking subsidiary, at the time. Ms. Parent now serves on the Board of Zoetis, Inc., an animal health firm, and formerly served on the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG from July 2014 to 2018.
Mr. D’Silva worked as a Senior Partner with the management consulting company McKinsey & Company from 1994 until his retirement in March 2022. Mr. D’Silva has been a leader in McKinsey Digital since 2012. Before that, he led McKinsey’s Sales & Marketing, Global Payments, and Risk Management Practices. Mr. D’Silva formerly worked at Swiss Bank Company, Acadian Asset Management, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. D’Silva is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Executive in Residence.
Mr. Lamneck has been an Executive Vice President of Insight Enterprises, Inc., a worldwide technology company, since January 2022. He served as President and CEO of Insight Enterprises, Inc. Mr. Lamneck was President of Americas at Tech Data Company, a wholesale technology distributor. Mr. Lamneck held several executive roles with Arrow Electronics Inc. After five years in the United States Army; he started his civilian career as an engineer at IBM. Mr. Lamneck graduated with honors from the University of Texas at El Paso and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Lamneck has been a director of Benchmark Enterprises, Inc. since 2013 and was formerly a director of Insight Enterprises, Inc.
Opinion: None of these are very large buys but it seems all the directors watched in disbelief as FIS tumbled gain on poor earnings outlook and analysts downgrades. After all it was trading at nearly twice this in the summer of 2021. FIS is a serial acquirer and perhaps they are just hitting the wall with this strategy. They announced a spinoff of their merchant services business but the market has given it a Bronx cheer.
Name: Lawrence L III Gellerstedt
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-10 Shares Bought: 3,400 Average Price Paid: $57.92 Cost: $196,928.00
Company: Brown & Brown Inc (BRO)
Brown & Brown, founded in 1939, is a comprehensive insurance agency, wholesale brokerage, insurance programs, and service company located in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Company advertises and distributes insurance products and services, especially property, casualty, and employee benefits. The firm offers quality, non-investment insurance contracts to consumers and other specialized, personalized risk management products and services. Because the firm mainly acts as an agent or broker, it does not take on underwriting risks. The Wright Insurance Group, LLC operation in which the Company runs a write-your-own flood insurance carrier, Wright National Flood Insurance Company, is an exception. WNFIC’s underwriting business consists of policies written under the National Flood Insurance Program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and excess flood and private flood policies that are fully reinsured, reducing WNFIC’s exposure to underwriting risk significantly.
Lawrence L. Gellerstedt started Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc., and has been the CEO of 15 different businesses. Mr. Gellerstedt serves on the boards of eight other businesses in addition to Georgia Power Co. He previously held the positions of Executive Chairman of Cousins Properties, Inc., Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at The Gellerstedt Group LLC, President & Chief Operating Officer of The Integral Group LLC, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer for American Business Products, Inc., Chairman for The Commerce Club, Inc., Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Beers Skanska, Inc., Chairman at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc., Chairman for The Woodruff Arts Center, and Chairman of Metro Atlanta Development.
Opinion: Hmm, small buy, wouldn’t read too much into it considering the proxy, Directors are expected to own some stock. Lawrence has bought about $500 worth over the last year at similar prices.
Name: Robert S Keane
Position: CEO Chairman
Transaction Date: 2023-02-10 Shares Bought: 31,556 Average Price Paid: $37.60 Cost: $1,186,393.00
Company: Cimpress plc (CMPR)
Cimpress is a strategically focused network of more than a dozen enterprises specializing in mass customization of printing and associated goods, allowing them to promptly provide large quantities of individually small-sized customized orders. Marketing materials, business cards, signs, promotional goods, branded wear, packaging, books and periodicals, wall décor, picture merchandise, invitations and announcements, and more categories are among the company’s offerings. Mass customization is a major component of each Cimpress organization’s business model and a competitive strategy that attempts to provide products and services to satisfy specific client demands with near-mass production efficiency. The firm goes into further information about mass customization lower down. This decentralized structure is advantageous in several ways. According to the corporation, decentralization allows organizations to be more customer-oriented and make better choices quicker than a centralized structure.
Robert is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Cimpress, a strategic investment and development firm that invests in and creates customer-focused, entrepreneurial, mass customization companies to benefit consumers, team members, long-term shareholders, and society. He created the firm in 1995 to provide high-quality, full-color, professionally-designed marketing materials to small companies at a cheap cost, in low numbers, effortlessly and promptly. During the company’s early days, Robert worked as an external consultant for Microsoft with the Microsoft Publisher desktop publishing product team, investigating and advising on small European companies graphic design and printing requirements. He received his B.A. in Economics from Harvard College in the United States and his MBA from France. Before joining INSEAD, he worked for nine years in management consulting and general management at a small firm focusing on designing and manufacturing bespoke electronic components for the military and aerospace industries.
Opinion: Kean is buying stock. Since Feb 6th he has purchased about $4 million at near this price. This as the geeks like to speak is non trivial.
Name: Philip Liang
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-02-10 Shares Bought: 60,480 Average Price Paid: $3.06 Cost: $185,008.00
Company: Vicarious Surgical Inc. (RBOT)
Vicarious Surgical Inc. is integrating miniature robotics, computer science, and 3D visualization to create the Vicarious System. This single-incision surgical robot takes physicians inside the patient to conduct minimally invasive surgery or MIS. The company’s breakthrough next-generation robotics technology aims to boost the efficiency of surgical operations, improve patient outcomes, and lower healthcare costs. The company’s goal is to bring the next generation to robotic-assisted surgery to eliminate the inadequacies of open surgery and existing laparoscopic and robot-assisted MIS. A visionary team of engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, leads it. The business has created many prototypes and has pre-submission meetings with the FDA to ensure everyone is on the same page with the regulatory approach. The company intends to submit a de novo application with the FDA for ventral hernia surgeries as the first indication.
Mr. Philip Liang has been a member of the board of directors since the Business Combination Closing in September 2021, and he previously served on the Legacy Vicarious Board. Mr. Liang formerly served as a managing partner of E15VC, a worldwide technology venture firm. He is also a Board Member of CaeliVascular and E15VC. Mr. Liang guides rising growth firms and investors through the venture capital life cycle. Mr. Liang is on the boards of directors of many E15VC-affiliated firms. Mr. Liang graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006 with a Master of Science in Media Laboratory. Mr. Liang’s credentials for service on the board of directors include past board experience as a member of the Legacy Vicarious Board, as well as business and financial expertise at E15VC.
Opinion: Completely disruptive, rethinking robotic surgery by two bright M.I.T. students in collaboration with major healthcare providers. A list of VCs, this is a first class public VC play probably trading at a lower valuation than some of the private placements they have done.
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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 a 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 this corporate welfare loophole. 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. I say generally because some 10% shareholders are great investors. Think Warren Buffett, Icahn, and others
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.
This blog is solely for educational purposes and the author’s own amusement. Don’t rely on this blog. Think of the blog as part of my personal investment journal that I am willing to share with the DIY investor. We welcome your comments on our analysis but please do your own research. Investing with The Insiders Fund is for qualified investors and by Prospectus only. Nothing herein should be construed otherwise. THE INSIDERS FUND prefers to invest in companies at or near prices that management has been willing to invest significant amounts of their own money in but we have no requirement to do so. We also invest in many companies in anticipation of future insider buying or with the expectation that there is none at all.
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