Insiders came out to play last week. It was not pretty, but insiders are bottom fishers, as a rule. They buy in force when prices are down when they perceive a bottom. Regional bank insiders were all over the field scooping up prices that haven’t been seen since the Pandemic lows. Unfortunately, most of it was in regional bank stocks. Bank stocks are notoriously difficult to understand. First of all, they are highly leveraged, between 5-10% Tier 1 capital ratios which is the ratio of a bank’s core tier 1 capital—its equity capital and disclosed reserves—to its total risk-weighted assets. Usually, that will be a number higher than 10 for a healthy bank, but as you’ve seen recently, it doesn’t take much to start a bank run, and equity disappears overnight when stock prices collapse, and money doesn’t even have to wait for the doors to open before it can pick up and leave.
There are only two banks that I would buy. You’ll have to suffer to the end of the post to find that name. I’ve dipped a toe into the water several times only to get burned. Things happen fast and without much warning- buyer beware. In hindsight, my biggest regret over my long investing career is to hanging on to small losing positions and watching them turn into major losses. I don’t believe in hard, fast rules, like down 15%, cut and run. The greatest admiration is for investors like Buffett, who will continue to buy all the way down and wait it out. In order to do that, you have to have lots of conviction. Normally insider buying helps with that conviction. I have also found that insiders are notoriously bad at valuing their own bank. I’ll never forget the time I bought some Wachovia in 2008 because the CEO bought $10 million at its very depressed price, and I jumped on board only to watch it evaporate as Wells Fargo rescued it days before receivership, just two months later.
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Name: Mark Malcolm
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 4,700 Average Price Paid: $214.47 Cost: $1,008,011
Company: General Dynamics Corp (GD)
General Dynamics is a multinational aerospace and defense corporation specializing in high-end design, engineering, and production to provide clients with cutting-edge solutions. The firm provides a diverse range of goods and services in business aviation, shipbuilding, maintenance, ground combat vehicles, weapons systems, munitions, and technological products and services. The company’s dominant positions in appealing business aviation and defense industries allow it to provide exceptional and long-term shareholder returns. The corporation comprises ten business divisions organized into four operational segments: Aerospace, Marine Systems, Combat Systems, and Technologies. Each business unit is responsible for formulating and implementing its strategy and operational outcomes to optimize market focus, customer intimacy, agility, and operating expertise.
Mark M. Malcolm is now the President and Chief Executive Officer of Tower Automotive AS. Mr. Malcolm has also served as a director on the board of General Dynamics Corp since 2015. Mr. Malcolm formerly worked as a Senior Member at Cerberus Capital Management LP, Executive Vice President and Controller-Ford Motor Credit at Ford Motor Co., and Director at Tower International, Inc. Dartmouth College awarded him an undergraduate degree The University of Chicago awarded him an MBA.
Opinion: The world seems as dangerous as I’ve even seen it. I can’t understand how a leading defense stock cannot be outperforming, but they all are. Is peace breaking out? If it has, I’ve missed the memo.
Name: Christine A Leahy
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-05-04 Shares Bought: 3,050 Average Price Paid: $163.62 Cost: $499,041
Company: CDW Corp (CDW)
CDW Corporation, a Fortune 500 corporation, is a prominent multi-brand supplier of information technology solutions to small, medium, and large businesses, governments, educational institutions, and healthcare clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The offerings include discrete hardware and software products and integrated IT solutions and services with on-premise and cloud capabilities spanning hybrid infrastructure, digital experience, and security. Around 10,600 customer-facing coworkers, including sellers, highly skilled technology specialists, and advanced service delivery engineers, deliver the company’s solutions in physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments. The firm is “agnostic” regarding vendor, technology, and consumption model, providing a diverse range of goods and multi-branded IT solutions.
Christine A. Leahy is CDW’s chairperson, president, and CEO. Leahy has held various positions at CDW, most recently as a chief revenue officer. She was responsible for the company’s customer-facing departments, including its corporate, public, small business, international, and integrated technology solutions organizations. Before that, Leahy was senior vice president of international, overseeing the company’s international strategy, including the acquisition of Kelway, now CDW UK, and was in charge of the company’s international performance. Leahy graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree and Boston College Law School with a J.D. She completed the CEO Perspectives Programme at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the Kellogg Women’s Director Development Programme.
Opinion: CDW has been a wonderful investment for a decade. I would never have dreamed with the Amazons and Best Buys of the world, there was a role for a third party vendor. My loss. Ms. Leahy has been a regular buyer of $250k worth of stock, don’t read too much into it.
Name: Mandy Yang
Position: VP, Chief Financial Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 3,500 Average Price Paid: $156.86 Cost: $549,022
Company: Enphase Energy Inc. (ENPH)
Enphase Energy Inc. is a worldwide energy technology firm formed in Delaware in March 2006 under the name PVI Solutions, Inc. The firm creates, develops, manufactures, and sells home energy systems that integrate energy production, storage, control, and communication into a single intelligent platform. The company has revolutionized the solar industry by pioneering a semiconductor-based microinverter that converts energy at the individual solar module level and provides advanced energy monitoring and control when combined with proprietary networking and software technologies. This is vastly different from a string inverter system, whether with or without an optimizer, which only converts the energy of the entire array of solar modules from a single high-voltage electrical unit and needs more intelligence about the solar array’s energy-producing capacity.
Mandy joins Enphase with over 20 years of expertise in accounting, financial reporting, treasury, and tax in the energy management, solar technology, and semiconductor sectors. Mandy joined Enphase in 2018 as chief accounting officer and corporate treasurer, having previously worked at Tesla, Inc. as a senior director and group controller, where she was responsible for global order-to-cash revenue financial accounting, APAC and EMEA regional controllership, and APAC and EMEA accounting and financial shared services setup. Mandy has a bachelor’s degree in international business from National Taiwan University and an M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a chartered financial analyst and a certified public accountant in California.
Opinion: One has to be tempted here although the valuation is still high. Enphase is the leading inverter in the solar industry and ENPH has made shareholders generationally rich. Last week TJ Rodgers bought $4.5M worth of stock. Stock bulls should be gratified to see the CFO buy $549K more of it. The residential solar business seems to be impacted by higher mortgage rates. Unlike the housing stocks, ENPH has not recovered. It could be because it ran up so much it did not participate in the housing home builders recovery.
Name: Mark Douglas
Position: President and CEO
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 4,121 Average Price Paid: $115.53 Cost: $476,102
Company: FMC Corp (FMC)
FMC Corporation is a multinational agricultural sciences firm committed to assisting producers in producing food, feed, fiber, and fuel for a growing global population while adjusting to changing environmental conditions. FMC’s unique crop protection products allow producers, crop consultants, turf and pest management specialists, and others to meet their most difficult issues while maintaining safety and the environment. FMC is dedicated to developing novel insecticide, herbicide, and fungicide active ingredients, product formulations, and cutting-edge technologies that are always better for the environment. Over the last ten years, the firm has reduced its portfolio to become a tier-one leader and the fifth-biggest worldwide innovator in the agricultural chemicals industry. Technology, innovation, regional balance, and crop variety contribute to the company’s strong competitive position.
Mark Douglas became president and chief executive officer of FMC in June 2020. As FMC’s president and chief operating officer since June 2018, he has supervised the company’s commercial, operational, and technology organizations. After being designated head of the Industrial Chemicals Group in 2011, Mr. Douglas was made president of the Agricultural Solutions division in October 2012. He joined FMC as vice president of Global Operations and International Development in March 2010. Mr. Douglas formerly worked at The Dow Chemical Company as vice president, president of Asia, and Dow Advanced Materials. Before joining Dow, he was corporate vice president and president of Rohm and Haas Company in Shanghai. Mr. Douglas worked for Rohm and Haas for 21 years, holding sales, marketing, and senior management roles in London, Singapore, Shanghai, and Philadelphia.
Opinion: There is not much growth at FMC but people have to eat. I think this stock only works with efficiency of management, rationalization of costs, and many moving parts. I prefer Dow Dupont spinoff Corteva in this sector.
Name: Steve Sanghi
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-01 Shares Bought: 23,500 Average Price Paid: $85.00 Cost: $1,997,500
Company: Impinj Inc (PI)
Impinj Inc is paving the way for a future in which common physical goods are wirelessly linked to digital equivalents, or digital twins, in the cloud. Organizations and individuals may get information about an item via its digital twin. The objective of the firm is to link everything. The firm provides a platform enabling item-to-cloud communication and solution providers to create IoT-exclusive products. Today, the company provides billions of physical items with identity, location, and authenticity. The business believes that the future will include extending that distribution to trillions of physical goods and providing ubiquitous access to cloud-based digital twins of those items, each of which will store an item’s ownership, history, and linkages. The firm believes that the platform’s item connectedness improves corporate processes and commerce, eventually improving people’s lives.
Steve Sanghi is a businessman who has served as the CEO of five businesses. He is now the Executive Chairman of Microchip Technology, Inc. and the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. Mr. Sanghi also serves on the boards of Impinj, Inc. and Microchip Ltd. as the US Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Mr. Sanghi’s previous positions included General Manager-Programmable Memory Operations at Intel Corp., Chairman of Adflex Solutions, Inc., Chief Executive Officer & Director at Microsemi Corp., Non-Executive Chairman for FlipChip International LLC, Vice President-Operations at Waferscale Integration, Inc., and Director at First Organisation. Mr. Sanghi has a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor’s degree from Panjab University in Chandigarh.
Opinion: This is classic small cap growth stock. Paying up for growth can eventually work. Getting a shrinking business on the cheap, rarely works. According to Post on the Fly “Lake Street analyst Troy Jensen lowered the firm’s price target on Impinj to $130 from $135 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Impinj reported “solid” Q1 results, but Q2 guidance was below expectations as a “handful of marquee deployments with both retail and logistics customers have slipped to the right for a few months,” the analyst tells investors. The firm, which says it still views Impinj as “the best way to play the RFID market,” believes the negative reaction to Q2 guidance creates “a great entry point for one of the best, open-ended growth opportunities in our coverage.”
Name: Peter J Nolan
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 13,160 Average Price Paid: $75.99 Cost: $1,000,005
Company: Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide leader in creating and distributing interactive entertainment content and services. The company creates and distributes video game console content and services, personal computers, and mobile devices. The company also runs esports leagues and has digital advertising embedded in some material. Battle.net, the company’s unique online gaming service, also supports digital content distribution, online social connectedness, and the development of user-generated content. It also runs esports leagues and offers digital advertising material, warehousing, logistics, and sales distribution services to third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software and manufacturers of interactive entertainment hardware items.
Mr. Nolan has been an Activision Blizzard director since October 2013. Mr. Nolan is a senior adviser to Leonard Green & Partners, L.P., and was formerly the firm’s managing partner. Mr. Nolan joined Leonard Green & Partners in 1997 after working as a managing director and co-head of Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette’s Los Angeles Investment Banking Division from 1990 to 1997, a first vice president in corporate finance at Drexel Burnham Lambert from 1986 to 1990, and a vice president at Prudential Securities, Inc. from 1982 to 1986. Mr. Nolan graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in agricultural economics and finance and an M.B.A.
Opinion: Nolan Bushnell was a good early on timer before the Microsoft deal. Interesting to see him back with the likelihood of the deal collapsing. ATVI put up a good quarter, with $577 million free cash flow, First Quarter Net Bookings Grew 25% Year-Over-Year, First Quarter Mobile Net Bookings Grew Double-Digits Year-Over-Year, First Quarter GAAP Operating Income Grew Approximately 70% Year-Over-Year, Segment Operating Income Grew Approximately 30% Year-Over-Year. I can make a good case that the stock would be higher today even without the deal. If the deal falls through, ATVI will collect $3 Billion from Microsoft adding to its already rich balance sheet of $12.5 Billion. Perhaps its time to play Call of Duty again.
Name: L. Jack Lord
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-01 Shares Bought: 5,000 Average Price Paid: $62.04 Cost: $310,200
Company: Prosperity Bancshares Inc (PB)
Prosperity Bancshares, Inc., a Texas business, was established in 1983 as a vehicle for acquiring the old Allied Bank in Edna, Texas, which was founded in 1949 as The First National Bank of Edna and is now known as Prosperity Bank. The bank offers various financial products and services to companies and customers throughout Texas and Oklahoma. The communities serviced by the Company’s banking centers are its market. The diverse nature of the economies in each local market the Company serves provides the Company with a diverse customer base. It enables the Company to spread its lending risk across various industries, such as professional service firms and their principals, manufacturing, tourism, recreation, petrochemicals, farming, and ranching.
Mr. Jack Loard is the Company’s, Independent Director. Mr. Lord has been a director of the Company since April 2016 and a director of the Bank since 1995. Mr. Lord is a former stakeholder of Harper Pearson Co., PC, a Houston accounting company. With over 45 years of experience as a CPA, he has worked in various sectors, including oil & gas, manufacturing, banking, retail, and service. He has held multiple financial and executive roles in several small firms and created and managed a public accounting company. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honours from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master’s in Business Administration from Oklahoma City University, and a Certified Public Accountant qualification.
Opinion:
Name: Robert W Stallings
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-04-28 Shares Bought: 23,500 Average Price Paid: $50.47 Cost: $1,186,095
Company: Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (TCBI)
Name: Thomas E Long
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-04-28 Shares Bought: 4,000 Average Price Paid: $50.17 Cost: $200,680
Company: Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (TCBI)
Texas Community Bancshares, Inc. was established in March 2021 to take over as the holding company for Mineola Community Bank, S.S.B. after Mineola Community Mutual Holding Company underwent a “Conversion” from a mutual holding company to a stock holding company. When making commercial real estate loans, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. takes into account a number of variables. The business assesses the borrower’s credentials and financial situation, including their credit history, profitability, and level of experience, as well as the worth and condition of the assets used as collateral for the loan. The organization looks at the borrower’s financial resources, expertise owning or managing similar property, and payment history with other financial institutions when assessing the borrower’s suitability.
Thomas E. Long is the co-Chief Executive Officer of Energy Transfer LP, the owner, and operator of one of North America’s biggest and most diverse portfolios of energy assets. He offers his new position over three decades of energy sector leadership expertise. He has worked at Regency GP LLC, Matrix Service Company, DCP Midstream Partners, and Duke Energy in senior positions. Mr. Long now manages the Company’s leadership and strategic direction in providing energy safely and responsibly to its consumers worldwide. He was Energy Transfer’s Group Chief Financial Officer from 2016 until 2020. He formerly worked as Regency GP LLC’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, as well as DCP Midstream Partners’ Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Opinion: Bank stocks are notoriously difficult to understand. First of all, they are highly leveraged, between 5-10% Tier 1 capital ratios which is the ratio of a bank’s core tier 1 capital—its equity capital and disclosed reserves—to its total risk-weighted assets. Usually, that will be a number higher than 10 for a healthy bank, but as you’ve seen recently, it doesn’t take much to start a bank run, and equity disappears overnight when stock prices collapse, and money doesn’t even have to wait for the doors to open before it can pick up and leave.
Name: James A LaHaise
Position: Chief Strategy Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-05-01 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $33.03 Cost: $330,287
Company: Ameris Bancorp (ABCB)
Ameris Bancorp is a financial holding company whose primary business is conducted through its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, Ameris Bank, which provides a full range of banking services to its retail and commercial customers in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The principal function of a Bank holding company is to manage the Bank’s operations and affairs. As a Bank holding company, the Bank performs some shareholder and investor relations tasks and seeks to offer financial assistance to the Bank as needed. The Bank has maintained a long-term emphasis on increasing and broadening its franchise in terms of revenues, profitability, and asset size. Over the last few years, both organic growth and acquisitions have significantly boosted bank growth.
James A. LaHaise III has been the executive vice president and chief strategy officer since June 2018. Before this, he was executive vice president and chief banking officer for Georgia and Alabama since January 2016. From June 2014 through January 2016, he worked as an executive vice president and commercial banking executive. From January 2013 through June 2014, Mr. LaHaise was president and chief executive officer of Coastal Bankshares, Inc. and The Coastal Bank. From May 2007 through January 2013, he served as The Coastal Bank’s executive vice president and chief banking officer.
Opinion: Bank stocks are notoriously difficult to understand. First of all, they are highly leveraged, between 5-10% Tier 1 capital ratios which is the ratio of a bank’s core tier 1 capital—its equity capital and disclosed reserves—to its total risk-weighted assets. Usually, that will be a number higher than 10 for a healthy bank, but as you’ve seen recently, it doesn’t take much to start a bank run, and equity disappears overnight when stock prices collapse, and money doesn’t even have to wait for the doors to open before it can pick up and leave.
Name: Patrick P Gelsinger
Position: CEO
Transaction Date: 2023-05-01 Shares Bought: 8,200 Average Price Paid: $30.41 Cost: $249,324
Company: Intel Corp (INTC)
Intel provided silicon to Silicon ValleyIntel, and its employees have had a tremendous effect on the world for over 50 years, promoting business and society by producing breakthrough ideas that radically transform lives. Intel is now using its reach, size, and resources to assist its customers in realizing the full potential of digital technology. Work relentlessly to enhance semiconductor design and manufacturing to aid customers in addressing the most urgent difficulties. Integrate intelligence into the cloud, network, edge, and every kind of computing device to unleash what CEO Pat Gelsinger describes as the four superpowers: Al, pervasive connectivity, cloud to the edge, and ubiquitous computing. The four incredible technological developments driving the digitalization of everything are now big business considerations.
Patrick Gelsinger is the CEO of Intel Corporation and a member of its board of directors. Gelsinger returned to Intel on February 15, 2021, where he had worked for 30 years. Before returning to Intel, Gelsinger was the CEO of VMware. He helped VMware become a worldwide leader in cloud infrastructure, corporate mobility, and cyber security while in that post, almost doubling the company’s annual revenues. Gelsinger was chosen the greatest CEO in America in 2019 by Glassdoor, an annual assessment. Before joining VMware in 2012, Gelsinger was president and chief operating officer of EMC’s Information Infrastructure Products business. He supervised engineering and operations for data storage, data computing, backup and recovery, RSA security, and enterprise solutions.
Opinion: Gelsinger has faith, literally. Not many others do. It seems inevitable that the semi conductor industry gets re-shorred out of Taiwan. Intel will play a major role. It seems like just a matter of time. There is no need to go to war over Taiwan Semiconductor. Precision guided Tomahawk missiles launched from an Ohio class invisible nuclear powered submarine will destroy it before we ever allow the CCP by force to gets their hands on it.
Does Intel do AI?
Intel has a large language model processor called the Intel Xeon CPU Max Series. It is an x86 CPU with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that is designed to accelerate inference on large language models. The processor also includes the new Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel® AMX) instructions set for fast matrix multiplication and the OpenVINO toolkit for automatic model optimization. The combination of these features makes the Intel Xeon CPU Max Series an ideal platform for running large language models in production.
In a recent benchmark, Numenta showed that their custom-trained large language models can run 20x faster for large documents (long sequence lengths) when they run on Intel® Xeon® CPU Max Series processors with high bandwidth memory located on the processor vs current generation AMD Milan CPU implementations. This demonstrates the capacity to dramatically reduce the overall cost of running language models in production on Intel, unlocking entirely new NLP capabilities for customers.
Intel is also working with Habana Labs, a leading AI accelerator company, to develop a new generation of AI processors that are specifically designed for large language models. The Habana Gaudi processor is the first in this new generation of processors and it is already being used by some of the leading AI companies in the world. Intel bought Habana in 2019. That looks pretty prescient to me, more than sentient.
Name: Orrin H Ii Ingram
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-04-28 Shares Bought: 6,770 Average Price Paid: $29.79 Cost: $201,678
Company: FB Financial Corp (FBK)
FB Financial Corporation is a financial holding company and a bank holding company. The headquarters are in Nashville, Tennessee. FirstBank, the wholly-owned bank subsidiary, offers customers a full suite of business and consumer banking services in select locations, notably in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and North Georgia. Throughout its history, the bank has maintained a community banking approach of personalized relationship-based service delivered locally by experienced bankers in each market. Maintaining this relationship-based strategy, using local, skilled, and experienced bankers in each area, has been a key component of the bank’s success as it has developed.
Orrin H. Ingram is an American businessman who has served as Chairman of Ingram Marine Group and President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Ingram Industries, Inc. Mr. Ingram also serves on the boards of six other corporations. He previously served as an Advisor at TVV Capital, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Ingram Barge Co. LLC, Chairman of Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, Chairman of The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Centre, Chairman of the United States Polo Association, and Chairman of the Polo Training Foundation. Vanderbilt University provided Orrin H. Ingram with his undergraduate degree.
Opinion: Insiders are buying realms of banks that no one outside their communities have ever heard of. Perhaps buying a basket of them will work. There is certainly blood in the streets. It will take too much work for me to figure this out though. Nor am I smart enough.
Name: Timothy E Delaney
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 40,000 Average Price Paid: $29.77 Cost: $1,190,800
Company: Nbt Bancorp Inc (NBTB)
Nbt Bancorp Inc’s primary business is to provide commercial banking, retail banking, and wealth management services to customers in its market area, which includes central and upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Hampshire, western Massachusetts, Vermont, southern Maine, and central Connecticut. The Company has been and will continue to be a community-oriented financial institution that provides a wide range of financial services. The Company’s financial condition and operating results depend on net interest income, which is the difference between interest and dividend income earned on its earning assets, primarily loans and investments, and interest expense paid on its interest-bearing liabilities, primarily deposits and borrowings.
Timothy E. Delaney is a businessman and entrepreneur who created Tetra Tech Canada Construction, Inc., Leagas Delaney, Tetra Tech Construction, Inc., and five other firms. He is the Chairman and Executive Creative Director of Leagas Delaney, the President of Wesson Group LLC, and the President of Delaney Motor Sports, Inc. Mr. Delaney also serves on the boards of NBT Bancorp, Inc., NBT Bank NA, and NBT Financial Services, Inc., as well as Tetra Tech Construction Services, Inc. Mr. Delaney formerly held the positions of President of Tetra Tech Canada Construction, Inc. and President of Tetra Tech Construction, Inc.
Opinion: So I’m repeating myself. Insiders are buying realms of banks that no one outside their communities have ever heard of. Perhaps buying a basket of them will work. There is certainly blood in the streets. It will take too much work for me to figure this out though.
Name: Thomas W Seger
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 15,000 Average Price Paid: $27.76 Cost: $416,370
Company: German American Bancorp Inc. (GABC)
German American Bancorp, Inc. is an Indiana-based financial holding corporation. German American runs 77 banking facilities in 20 contiguous southern Indiana counties and 14 counties in Kentucky via its banking subsidiary, German American Bank. German American Investment Services, Inc. is the Company’s investment brokerage arm, while German American Insurance, Inc. is a full-service property and casualty insurance agency. The Company’s business lines include retail and commercial banking, wealth management services, and insurance activities. The corporation’s retail and commercial banking operations include soliciting public deposits and utilizing those funds to originate consumer, commercial and agricultural, commercial and agricultural real estate, and residential mortgage loans, principally in the corporation’s local markets. These basic banking operations also include the secondary market selling of residential mortgage loans.
Thomas W. Seger is the Company’s, Independent Director. He has been a director of the Company since August 16, 2011, when he was elected to a newly constituted board seat. He is the Chairman of the Compensation/Human Resources Committee and a Governance/Nominating Committee member. Mr. Seger is the President of Wabash Valley Produce, Inc., a large poultry producer in Dubois, Indiana, and an executive of Simple Transport, Inc., also based in Dubois, Indiana, and a Farbest Foods shareholder. Mr. Seger adds to the Board’s unique perspectives based on his over 40 years of experience in poultry and agriculture and his local, regional, and national knowledge in the agricultural industry. Mr. Seger’s extensive human resource management expertise with Wabash Valley also contributes to his performance as Compensation/Human Resources Committee Chairman.
Opinion: So I’m repeating myself. Insiders are buying realms of banks that no one outside their communities have ever heard of. Perhaps buying a basket of them will work. There is certainly blood in the streets. It will take too much work for me to figure this out though.
Name: Scott J Mclean
Position: President
Transaction Date: 2023-04-28 Shares Bought: 37,000 Average Price Paid: $27.44 Cost: $1,015,280
Company: Zions Bancorporation National Association (ZION)
Name: Paul E. Burdiss
Position: Executive Vice President
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 20,000 Average Price Paid: $27.42 Cost: $548,435
Company: Zions Bancorporation National Association (ZION)
Name: Harris H Simmons
Position: Chairman & CEO
Transaction Date: 2023-04-02 Shares Bought: 20,000 Average Price Paid: $24.16 Cost: $483,200
Company: Zions Bancorporation National Association (ZION)
Zions Bancorporation National Association mainly serves the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming with different banking and associated services. Corporate banking services; commercial banking, with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses; commercial real estate banking services; municipal and public finance services; retail banking, including residential mortgages; trust services; wealth management and private client banking services; and capital markets products and services are all provided by the company. In September 2018, the firm changed its name from ZB, National Association, to Zions Bancorporation, National Association. Zions Bancorporation, National Association, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was formed in 1873.
Scott J. McLean has been a director since December 2013. He is the president of Zions Bancorporation and the chairman of its subsidiary, Amegy Bank of Texas. He formerly worked as the CEO of Amegy Bank and the executive vice president of Zions Bancorporation. McLean spent 23 years with JPMorgan Chase, where he held several positions, including president in Dallas, chairman in El Paso, and president in Houston. He now serves on the Southern Methodist University Board of Trustees, the United Way of Houston, and the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System boards.
Paul E. Burgess is the chief financial officer of Zions Bancorporation. He was the corporate treasurer for SunTrust Banks, Inc., before joining Zions as CFO in March 2015. He was in charge of the investment portfolio, capital management, liquidity, and interest rate risk management, aiding with stress testing and the CCAR process. Burdiss worked for Comerica Inc. as executive vice president and treasurer before joining SunTrust as head of investor relations. He was formerly a relationship manager with The Bank of Nova Scotia in Chicago, Illinois. Burgess graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Harris H. Simmons is the Chairman and C.E.O. of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. He is a director of National Life Group and O.C. Tanner Co. Before 1998, he was president and C.E.O. of Zions First National Bank, and he has been an officer of the Company since 1981. He has been president and C.E.O. of Zions Bancorporation since 1990 and chairman since 2002. Mr. Simmons began working for Zions in 1970 and has held several jobs with Zions First National Bank and Zions Bancorporation over his more than 40 years with the Company. He graduated from the University of Utah and has an M.B.A. from Harvard. Mr. Simmons is a former chairman of the American Bankers Association.
Opinion: Zions like many regional banks is critical to the economies of their region. It can’t be replaced. Depositors though have little allegiance. I have no doubt that Zions is a survivor but I have no idea of at what price. Bricks and mortar branches are increasingly useless. It’s part of the bigger picture of useless office space. Office space can possibly be reimagined. I’m not sure bank branches can be.
Name: Randy S. Bimes
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 9,287 Average Price Paid: $24.90 Cost: $231,246
Company: QNB Corp (QNBC)
QNB was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on June 4, 1984. The Bank operates in the general commercial banking sector and offers its clients a broad range of financial services. These banking services include soliciting deposits and utilizing this money to make business loans, residential mortgage loans, consumer loans, and purchase investment assets, among other things. These deposits come in time deposits, demand deposits, and savings accounts. Certificates of deposit and individual retirement accounts are examples of time deposits. Money market accounts, interest-bearing demand accounts, club accounts, classic statement savings accounts, and a higher-yielding online savings account are among the demand and savings accounts offered by the Bank.
Dr. Bimes has been the President and Managing Partner of Quakertown Veterinary Clinic since August 1996. MAVANA, a nationwide aggregation of veterinary practices, has employed him as Vice President of Operations since December 2016—chair of Community Veterinary Partners’ Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Bimes has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Bimes’ expertise in small company operations and development, strategic planning, and work in small business aggregation, as well as his participation in the community, qualify him to serve as a director of QNB.
Opinion:
Name: John E Jr Williams
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 45,000 Average Price Paid: $21.96 Cost: $988,290
Company: Stellar Bancorp Inc. (STEL)
Name: Joe Sr Penland
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-08 Shares Bought: 79,512 Average Price Paid: $21.68 Cost: $1,723,792
Company: Stellar Bancorp Inc. (STEL)
Stellar Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company that offers various commercial banking services to small and medium-sized enterprises, professionals, and individuals. It offers checking accounts, commercial accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and other time deposits, as well as certificates of deposit. Commercial and industrial loans; commercial real estate loans, including multi-family residential loans; commercial real estate construction and land development loans; residential real estate loans, including 1-4 family residential mortgage loans, home equity and home improvement loans, and home equity lines of credit; residential construction loans; and consumer and other loans comprise the company’s loan portfolio. Stellar Bancorp, Inc. was established in 2007 and is based in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Williams has been a director of the Company since 2023 and serves on the Compensation Committee and the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. In 2007, he was a director of CBTX, Inc., and CommunityBank of Texas, N.A. Beginning in April 2017, he served as Chairman of CBTX, Inc.’s Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Mr. Williams now serves on the boards of the Houston Astros and the Houston Police Foundation, as well as the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Mr. Williams graduated from Baylor University with a B.B.A. and Baylor School of Law with a J.D. He graduated top in his class.
Mr. Penland has been a director of the Corporation since 2023. He formerly served as a director of CBTX, Inc., and CommunityBank of Texas, N.A. starting in 2007. He was a member of CBTX, Inc.’s Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee and the Company’s Compensation Committee. Mr. Penland started Quality Mat Corporation in Beaumont, Texas, and served as its President from 1974 until August 2019, when he was named Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Penland has extensive experience serving on public and private community bank boards of directors. Mr. Penland contributes essential leadership, risk management, operations, strategic planning, and oil and gas sector skills to the board of directors, in addition to his understanding of the communities the Company serves.
Opinion:
Name: Michael Kort Schnabel
Position: Co-President
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 15,000 Average Price Paid: $17.84 Cost: $267,600
Company: Ares Capital Corp (ARCC)
Ares Capital Corporation, a Maryland corporation, is a closed-end, non-diversified managed investment firm specializing in specialty financing. The company’s investment goal is to generate both current income and capital appreciation through debt and equity investments. The business typically invests in middle-market companies in the United States, where it believes the availability of primary capital is limited and the investment prospects are most appealing. The percentage of various sorts of investments will alter over time, depending on the company’s opinions on, among other things, the economic and credit climate in which it operates. The corporation will normally aim to self-originate investments and drive the investment process to achieve the investment goal.
Mr. Schnabel is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, Co-Head for U.S. Direct Lending, and a U.S. Direct Lending Investment Committee member. He also serves as Co-President of Ares Capital Corporation. He also sits on Ares’ Sports, Media, and Entertainment Investment Committee and co-leads the strategy. Mr. Schnabel joined Ares in 2001 after working in the Corporate Development Group at Walker Digital Corporation, a business and technology research and development organization. He was in charge of corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and strategic planning. Mr. Schnabel formerly worked in Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance Group, where he did financial assessments for mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and equity/debt issues. Mr. Schnabel earned a B.A., with honors, in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Opinion: None
Name: Douglas A Cifu
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-05-04 Shares Bought: 50,000 Average Price Paid: $16.85 Cost: $842,425
Company: Virtu Financial Inc. (VIRT)
Virtu Financial Inc is a major financial organisation that uses cutting-edge technology to provide liquidity to global markets and customers with innovative, transparent trading solutions. Using its worldwide market structure knowledge and scalable, multi-asset infrastructure, the firm offers customers a broad product package that includes execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics, and broker-neutral, multi-dealer workflow technology platforms. Our integrated, multi-asset analytics platform offers a variety of pre- and post-trade services, data products, and compliance solutions on which our customers depend to invest, trade, and manage risk in global markets. technologies and operational efficiency are fundamental to the company’s performance, with a concentration on market making and order routing technologies.
Douglas Cifu is the CEO of Virtu Financial and the company’s co-founder in 2008. He was formerly a partner at the global legal firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Mr. Cifu worked at Paul Weiss as a member of the Management Committee, the Deputy Chair of the Corporate Department, and the co-head of the Private Equity Group. He is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors and the board of visitors of Columbia University’s Columbia College. Mr. Cifu received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1990 and his B.A. magna cum laude from Columbia University in 1987, where he was also a Phi Beta Kappa member.
Opinion: Virtu is a trading vehicle only. Too complex and not something I want to follow.
Name: Michael A Volkema
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 60,200 Average Price Paid: $16.61 Cost: $1,000,193
Company: Millerknoll Inc. (MLKN)
MillerKnoll is a dynamic brand collaborative that collaborates to build the world all live in. Design is a powerful instrument for making a difference in the settings created to help people live and work better, how produce goods, and how to solve problems for the customers and the global community. The Company conducts research, develops, produces, and sells interior furnishings for use in various locations such as residential, workplace, hospital, and educational settings, as well as providing associated services to organizations and people worldwide. Independent contract furniture dealers, direct customer sales, owned and independent stores, direct-mail catalogs, and the Company’s eCommerce platforms are the primary ways to sell the Company’s goods.
Herman Miller, Inc.’s Non-Executive Chairman is Mr. Michael A. Volkema. He has served on the Milliken & Co. Board of Directors and the Arts, Inc. Business Committee since 2000. Wolverine World Wide, Inc. formerly hired Mr. Volkema as an Independent Director. He was also a CEI Liquidation Estates and Applebee’s International, Inc director.
Opinion: Swimming upstream against a strong current is not something I would willingly do. Office space is under siege.
Name: Kim C Liddell
Position: Dir., Pres. and CEO of Bank
Transaction Date: 2023-05-01 Shares Bought: 21,720 Average Price Paid: $11.47 Cost: $249,119
Company: Lake Shore Bancorp Inc. (LSBK)
Lake Shore Bancorp, Inc. was formed in 2006 to serve as Lake Shore Savings Bank’s savings and loan holding Company in conjunction with the Company’s first public stock offering. The government Reserve Board regulates the Company, which is a government company. The Company owns Lake Shore Savings Bank’s issued and outstanding capital stock. Lake Shore Bancorp, Inc. is the holding Company for Lake Shore Savings Bank, which offers banking products and services in New York. The firm was established in 1891 and is based in Dunkirk, New York. Lake Shore Bancorp, Inc. is a Lake Shore, MHC subsidiary.
Kim C. Liddell has been appointed President, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Director. Mr. Liddell joins Lake Shore Savings with over 35 years of banking experience, most recently as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of 1880 Bank and Delmarva Bancshares, Inc. in Maryland. Mr. Liddell graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Business. He attended the University of Virginia’s School of Bank Management s well as the Graduate School of Retail Bank Management. Mr. Liddell now serves as a director of BV Financial and Bay Vanguard Bank. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, where he chairs the Finance Committee and is a member of the Credit, Member Services, and Housing Committees.
Opinion: So I’m repeating myself. Insiders are buying realms of banks that no one outside their communities have ever heard of. Perhaps buying a basket of them will work. There is certainly blood in the streets. It will take too much work for me to figure this out though.
Name: Matthew A Salem
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-04-27 Shares Bought: 25,000 Average Price Paid: $10.70 Cost: $267,563
Company: KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (KREF)
Name: W Patrick Mattson
Position: President and COO
Transaction Date: 2023-05-01 Shares Bought: 8,000 Average Price Paid: $10.60 Cost: $84,775
Company: KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (KREF)
KREF is a real estate finance firm primarily focusing on originating and acquiring transitional senior loans secured by institutional-quality commercial real estate properties owned and operated by experienced and well-capitalized sponsors in top markets with strong underlying fundamentals. Mezzanine loans, preferred shares, and other debt-oriented securities with comparable characteristics are also among the company’s target assets. The long-term investment goal of the firm is capital preservation and the development of good risk-adjusted returns for owners, principally via dividends. The firm is structured as an externally managed holding company by the Manager, an indirect subsidiary of KKR. It operates largely via numerous subsidiaries in a single segment that originates, buys, and funds the target assets.
Matthew A. Salem has been the Company’s Chief Executive Officer since March 2020 and a director since February 2022. He has also served as the Manager’s Chief Executive Officer since January 2021 and is a member of the Manager’s investment committee. Mr. Salem served as the Company’s Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-President from October 2015 to March 2020 and as Manager from March 2016 to January 2021. Mr. Salem joined KKR in 2015 and is now a Partner and the Head of KKR’s Real Estate Credit Group. Mr. Salem serves on the Real Estate Investment Committees of KKR. Mr. Salem graduated from Bates College with a B.A. in Economics. He has served on the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council’s Board of Governors and as Chair of the B-Piece Buyer Forum.
W. Patrick Mattson has been President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company since March 2020 and of the Manager since January 2021. He also serves on the investment committee of the Manager. Mr. Mattson served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer and Secretary from October 2015 to March 2020 and as the Manager from March 2016 to January 2021. Mr. Mattson joined KKR in 2015 and is the Real Estate Credit Group’s Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Real Estate Credit Investment Committee. Mr. Mattson has a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a CFA charter. He is now Vice Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Capital Council and an MBA Commercial/Multifamily Board of Governors member.
Opinion: Way too complex for me to even begin to think about. There will probably be lots of great opportunities here and these are maybe the smartest guys in the room. I’d like to see massive insider buys before I’d look again.
Name: Colin V Reed
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-04 Shares Bought: 25,138 Average Price Paid: $9.96 Cost: $250,405
Company: First Horizon Corp (FHN)
First Horizon Corporation is a Tennessee-based company. The First National Bank of Memphis was established in 1864, and the Bank was founded in 1968 and had its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. Under the Bank Holding Company Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Bank is a financial holding company. The Bank mainly offers financial services via the Bank’s primary subsidiary, First Horizon Bank. The Bank is a Tennessee banking business with its headquarters in Memphis.
Mr. Reed was appointed Chairman of the Board of Gaylord Entertainment Company, Ryman’s predecessor, in 2005, and Chief Executive Officer of Gaylord in 2001. Mr. Reed also serves on the board of directors of Ryman. Since 2006, he has served as a director at First Horizon. He also serves on the board of directors of First Horizon Corp. He formerly served as Chairman & CEO of Gaylord Entertainment Co., Chairman of JCC Holding Co., Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Caesars Licence Co. LLC, and Executive Assistant at Holiday Corp.
Opinion: First Horizon’s deal with Toronto Dominion collapsed. The stock is now swinging in the wind. The weather forecast is for increasing winds with storm clouds on the horizon. Seek shelter.
Name: Andrew J III Paine
Position: Head of Institutional Bank
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 75,000 Average Price Paid: $9.78 Cost: $733,500
Company: Keycorp (KEY)
KeyCorp was founded in 1958 under Ohio law and is based in Cleveland, Ohio. KeyCorp is the parent holding company for KeyBank National Association, the largest subsidiary, which provides most of the banking services. Through KeyBank and certain other subsidiaries, the company offers a diverse range of retail and commercial banking, commercial leasing, investment management, consumer finance, student loan refinancing, commercial mortgage servicing and special servicing, and investment banking products and services to individuals, corporations, and institutions. These services were available nationwide as of December 31, 2020, via KeyBank’s 1,073 full-service retail banking branches and a network of 1,386 ATMs in 15 states and other offices, online and mobile banking capabilities, and a telephone banking contact center.
Randy Paine is Key Institutional Bank’s President and KeyCorp’s Executive Leadership Team member. He was formerly the Co-Head of Key Corporate Bank. KeyBanc Capital Markets, Key’s Institutional and Healthcare Real Estate platform, and Key Equipment Finance are all part of Key Institutional Bank. KeyBanc Capital Markets is a unified business unit that includes Key’s Corporate, Investment Banking, Public Finance, and Capital Markets divisions. Key’s Institutional and Healthcare Real Estate platform is a national leader in providing corporate and investment banking solutions to REITs and other significant real estate businesses. Key Equipment Lending is among the top five bank-owned equipment lending firms in the United States. Mr. Paine came to Key from Arthur Andersen & Company’s Special Services Division in 1993.
Opinion: Regional banks are trading at Pandemic lows. Is this an opportunity or is the prelude to 2008. The bigger problem in my opinion is that its just not a great business with bricks and mortar banks becoming a relic.
Name: Douglas A. Rachlin
Position: Portfolio Manager
Transaction Date: 2023-04-28 Shares Bought: 58,580 Average Price Paid: $6.55 Cost: $383,758
Company: Neuberger Berman MLP & Energy Income Fund Inc. (NML)
Neuberger Berman MLP and Energy Income Fund Inc. is a closed-end fund that Neuberger Berman Management LLC manages. Neuberger Berman LLC co-manages it. The fund makes public equity investments, and it generally invests in limited liability businesses and masters limited partnerships. Neuberger Berman MLP Income Fund Inc. was its last name. Neuberger Berman MLP and Energy Income Fund Inc. were established in the United States on November 16, 2012.
Douglas A. Rachlin is a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager of Neuberger Berman’s Private Asset Management department and the creator of the Rachlin department. Doug joined Lehman Brothers in 1996, and Doug founded the Rachlin Group under Neuberger Berman’s Private Asset Management business in 2005. Doug has been quoted in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, CNBC, and Forbes Magazine as an expert on MLPs and energy infrastructure. Doug has a BA from Tufts University and an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Doug is on the Tufts University Board of Trustees. Doug taught “Investing, Psychology, and Human Behaviour” at Tufts University in 2017 and 2018.
Opinion: 11% yield is attractive but not sure why you need a public vehicle to invest in other public vehicles.
Name: Mark Robert Patterson
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-02 Shares Bought: 70,000 Average Price Paid: $6.52 Cost: $456,669
Company: HomeStreet Inc. (HMST)
HomeStreet Inc is a financial services firm with locations in Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Utah, and Idaho that serves consumers across the western United States. The firm was formed in 1921 and is based in Seattle, Washington. Commercial banking goods and services are offered to small and medium-sized enterprises, real estate investors, professional firms, and consumer banking products and services. HomeStreet Bank is a respected financial institution in the community, among its clients, staff, and regulators. Since 1921, the Company has gained the confidence of its customers, workers, and regulators through competent management and extensive community participation, establishing a reputation for dependability, fairness, honesty, and integrity.
Mark R. Patterson is the director. Mr. Patterson was appointed to the Board by unanimous decision of the other directors in January 2018 to fill a vacancy on the Board. From 1997 through 2014, Mr. Patterson was the Managing Director and Equity Analyst of NWQ Investment Management Co., LLC, an investment management firm. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst with a bachelor’s degree in business and mathematics from Linfield College and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA. Mr. Patterson is a member of Linfield College’s Board of Trustees, where he chairs the investment committee and participates in the financial affairs and executive committees. Mr. Patterson served on the audit and pay committees of FBR & Co. from 2015 until the company’s sale in 2017.
Opinion: Insiders are buying realms of banks that no one outside their communities have ever heard of. Perhaps buying a basket of them will work. There is certainly blood in the streets. I’m not smart enough to know the outcome. Even if I was it will take too much work for me to figure this out though.
Name: George Parmer
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-05-03 Shares Bought: 46,003 Average Price Paid: $5.81 Cost: $267,285
Company: Linkbancorp Inc. (LNKB)
Linkbancorp, Inc. serves as a bank holding company for The Gratz Bank, which offers a variety of banking products and services to individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, and businesses in Pennsylvania. Demand, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit are among its deposit offerings. Commercial real estate, commercial business, commercial real estate construction, land development, residential real estate, home equity, consumer, agricultural, and municipal loans are also available from the corporation. It offers online and mobile banking, direct and remote deposit, and cash management services. LINKBANCORP, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Parmer founded, was president, and CEO of Fine Line Houses, a family-owned business that began constructing houses in 1972. Mr. Parmer is also President and CEO of Residential Warranty Company, a prominent supplier of insured new house warranties to the construction industry. Since November 2020, Mr. Parmer has also served on the board of directors of Amesite Inc., an artificial intelligence software company that provides online learning. From 2014 until its sale in 2018, he served as an independent director of Sunshine Bank and Sunshine Bancorp, Inc. Mr. Parmer was a licensed public accountant and member of the National Association of Accountants, the National Association of Home Builders, among other things.
Opinion: Insiders are buying realms of banks that no one outside their communities have ever heard of. Perhaps buying a basket of them will work. There is certainly blood in the streets. I’m not smart enough to know the outcome. Even if I was it will take too much work for me to figure this out though.
Name: Anthony Noto
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-05-04 Shares Bought: 50,000 Average Price Paid: $4.73 Cost: $236,705
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: SOFI intrigues me. Their customer satisfaction scores are off the chart. SoFi achieved strong year-over-year growth in both members and products in the first quarter of 2023. New member additions of over 433,000 brought total members to nearly 5.7 million by quarter-end, up nearly 1.8 million, or 46%, from the end of 2022’s first quarter. I think they way overpaid for Galileo and Technisys, the technology business arm..
I’ve never heard of a financial institution that has attracted average customers with a 760 FICO score and average annual income of $160 thousand per year at anything remotely as this speed. They are like a vacuum cleaner sweeping up the best of the best financial assets of the new digitally aware generation. If they can achieve the vision of a one stop financial shop, the sky is the limit. The risk is obvious. If there is a bad recession and their market to market huge amount of consumer loans takes a big hit, tt could wipe out equity and zero out shareholders. Buying long term leaps is one way to play this.
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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 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, are horrendously poor. Also planned sales that 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 on which we are trying to read the tea leaves. 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.
A big callout to my assistant Ambreen who sets up this conversation by listing the notable buys that I’ve identified. She probes the 10k for a reasonable description of the business. I’ve found that to be the most accurate and succinct place to find out what a business actually does. The websites and marketing material are just that, poorly disguised marketing material for many. I should know that better than most if you at my past involvement in building the 1st websites for many Fortune 500 companies.
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.
You can be an insider, too– by clicking here
Prosperous Trading,
