At least half of the quarterly earnings are behind us, and the blackout window is opening. This week, insider buying has steadily picked up. We have some large insider buys this week in Marquis names. There could be some gems here, and I’m giving you my first crack at them. Meanwhile, if it weren’t for the massive amount of Government spending already added to the cake from Covid handouts, the Inflation Reduction Act, and Infrastructure Acts ,the Fed’s high-interest rate regime would already be bringing the economy to its knees, in my opinion.
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Name: John N Roberts
Position: CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-04-26 Shares Bought: 6,200 Average Price Paid: $161.06 Cost: $998,550
Company: Hunt J B Transport Services Inc (JBHT)
Hunt J B Transport Services Inc. is a major surface transportation, distribution, and logistics company in North America. J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. is a publicly traded holding company that, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, offers a diverse range of dependable transportation, brokerage, and delivery services to customers and consumers across the continental United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company was established in Arkansas on August 10, 1961, and has been a publicly traded corporation since the first public offering in 1983. The company service offers include the direct transportation of full-truckload containerized freight using their company-owned revenue equipment and company drivers, independent contractors, or third-party carriers. They have agreements with most of the major North American rail companies to transport freight in containers or trailers, and they handle the majority of the pickup and delivery.
Mr. Roberts is the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. He graduated from the University of Arkansas and was the Executive Vice President and President of Dedicated Contract Services from 1997 until December 31, 2010. He joined the company in 1989 as a Management Trainee and has since worked as an EDI Services Coordinator, Regional Marketing Manager for the Intermodal and Truckload business units, Business Development Executive for DCS, and Vice President of Marketing Strategy for the company.
Opinion: The business is down, and I don’t see daylight until more capacity is taken out, either through bankruptcy or attrition in some other way. I suppose this is when you want to buy the stock, but I’d like to have a clear path to the catalyst—and I don’t. The same goes for the massive stock purchasers insiders are buying at much smaller competitor, Heartland Express.
Name: Viet D Dinh
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-04-30 Shares Bought: 4,300 Average Price Paid: $114.83 Cost: $493,769
Company: Strategic Education Inc. (STRA)
Strategic Education, Inc. was formed in 1892 and is based in Herndon, Virginia. Strategic Education, Inc. is an education services company that offers high-quality postsecondary education on campus and online, as well as programs to create job-ready skills for high-demand sectors. The company primarily operates through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Capella University and Strayer University, both accredited postsecondary institutions of higher education in the United States, and Torrens University, an accredited postsecondary institution of higher education in Australia. Through the Education Technology Services division, the company focuses on building connections with employers to create employee education benefits programs that give employees cheap and industry-relevant training, certificates, and degrees. As of December 31, 2023, the company had three reportable segments: U.S. Higher Education, Australia/New Zealand, and Education Technology Services.
Viet D. Dinh is the founder of Bancroft PLLC, which was established in 2003. He was a partner at Bancroft PLLC from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Dinh also founded Bancroft & Associates. Mr. Dinh’s current positions include Director at Vietnam Education Foundation and Independent Director at Strategic Education, Inc. Mr. Dinh’s previous jobs include being an Independent Director at Light & Wonder, Inc. from 2017 to 2018, an Independent Director at Revlon, Inc. from 2012 to 2017, an Independent Director at M&F Worldwide Corp. in 2011, a Director at Revlon Consumer Products LLC from 2012 to 2017, a Director at 21st Century Fox America, Inc. from 2014 to 2018, an Independent Director at LPL Financial Holdings, Inc. from 2015 to 2018, a Director at News Corp. from 2004 to 2013, a Director at Mr. Dinh holds a graduate degree from Harvard Law School and an undergraduate degree from Harvard College.
Opinion: Strayer is on a roll. The stock is making all-time highs, which makes this particular purchase interesting. Insiders don’t normally buy at the 52-week high. They are more often bottom fishers and value buyers. The stock, which is up 25% year-to-date after surging 15% today, is trading at a premium to its postsecondary education peer group; Barrington believes the firm believes the company can grow revenues at a mid- to high-single-digit rate with adjusted operating margins in the low- to mid-20% range longer term. Even more unusual is that the company just filed a 1.65 Million share offering for selling shareholders. I don’t get it.
Name: Mandy Yang
Position: EVP, Chief Financial Officer
Transaction Date: 2024-05-02 Shares Bought: 4,000 Average Price Paid: $104.24 Cost: $416,972
Company: Enphase Energy Inc. (ENPH)
Enphase Energy, Inc. and its subsidiaries create, develop, manufacture, and sell residential energy solutions for the solar photovoltaic industry in the United States and abroad. The company provides a semiconductor-based microinverter that converts energy at the individual solar module level and integrates with its proprietary networking and software technologies for energy monitoring and control. It also offers microinverter units and accessories, an IQ gateway, IQ batteries, the cloud-based Enlighten monitoring service, storage solutions, and electric car charging solutions, in addition to design, proposal, permitting, and lead-generating services. The company provides its solutions via solar wholesalers, big installers, original equipment manufacturers, strategic partners, and homes, as well as through its legacy product upgrade program and online store. Enphase Energy, Inc. was established in 2006 and is based in Fremont, California.
Mandy has over 20 years of accounting, financial reporting, treasury, and tax experience from the energy management, solar technology, and semiconductor industries. Mandy was a senior director and group controller at Tesla, Inc. before joining Enphase as chief accounting officer and corporate treasurer in 2018. She was in charge of a global order-to-cash revenue financial accounting, APAC and EMEA regional controllership, and accounting and financial shared services setup for APAC and EMEA. Mandy also worked for SunPower Corporation as a senior director and division controller for the worldwide distributed generation division, as well as 8point3 Energy Partners’ chief accounting officer and corporate controller. Mandy formerly worked as an internal auditor at SYNNEX Corporation and for Deloitte and Touche. Mandy earned a bachelor’s degree in international business from National Taiwan University and a master’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Opinion: Enphpase is one of those stocks that went from sub $3 to over $300 quickly. Plenty of investors are waiting for that magic to happen again. Solar energy has a record glut of Chinese manufacturing products being dumped worldwide. The obvious solution to a big part of the renewable energy challenge has to be solar. Once the storage challenge is solved, experts believe this will be the largest electricity provider in the nation. So, I would keep my toes in the water under the best names like Enphase, even if the returns are suboptimal. They will eventually make a turn
Name: Liam Griffin
Position: Chairman, CEO and President
Transaction Date: 2024-05-02 Shares Bought: 11,142 Average Price Paid: $90.00 Cost: $1,002,780
Company: Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS)
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets its semiconductor products in the United States, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia Pacific. Its product portfolio includes amplifiers, antenna tuners, attenuators, automotive tuners and digital radios, DC/DC converters, demodulators, detectors, diodes, wireless analog system on chip products, directional couplers, diversity receive modules, filters, front-end modules, hybrids, light emitting diode drivers, low noise amplifiers, mixers, modulators, optocouplers/optoisolators, phase-locked loops, phase shifters, power dividers/combiners, power over ethernet, power The company’s products are used in the following markets: aerospace, automotive, broadband, cellular infrastructure, connected home, defense, entertainment and gaming, industrial, medical, military, smartphone, tablet, and wearable devices. It markets its goods through a direct sales team, electronic component distributors, and independent sales agents. Skyworks Solutions, Inc., founded in 1962, is headquartered in Irvine, California.
Liam K. Griffin is the chairman, CEO, and President of Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Before he was appointed chairman of the board in May 2021, he had been CEO and director since May 2016, and president since May 2014. From November 2012 to May 2014, he served as Skyworks’ executive vice president and corporate general manager, overseeing all business units. Since joining Skyworks in 2001, Mr. Griffin has held several positions, including executive vice president and general manager of high-performance analog and senior vice president of sales and marketing. Before joining Skyworks, he was vice president of global sales at Vectron International, a Dover Corporation subsidiary. Before that, he worked in AT&T’s Microelectronics and Network Systems businesses as a product manager and process engineer. Mr. Griffin holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as a master’s degree in business administration from Boston University.
Opinion: There was a time when Jim Cramer waxed poetic about Skyworks. Then it took its fall, and it’s been wandering around in the wasteland of former momentum stocks for seven years. I. The analyst narrative picked up on Post on the Fly Benchmark downgraded Skyworks (SWKS) to Hold from Buy and removed the firm’s prior price target after the company posted March quarter revenue that matched the Street consensus, but excess market inventories and soft consumer smartphone activity weighed on the company’s guidance for the June quarter. Skyworks is likely in the process of seeing its end-market demand bottoming, while its market share position looks positive at most of the leading Android players, but the firm is concerned by the company’s loss of about 10% net market share at its largest customer, Apple (AAPL), in its next generation smartphone that is expected to be announced this September, the analyst tells investors. When softer first half market demand is paired with the expected share loss at Apple in the second half, the firm’s model suggests an annual revenue decline of about 13.6% in FY24 and then as the iPhone 16 accounts for the bulk of Apple’s expected volumes in FY25, the firm looks for Skyworks’ sales to be about flat year-over-year, the analyst noted.
I listened to the latest webcast to glean any hopes for green stalks
Name: Tom Gentile
Position: CEO and President
Transaction Date: 2024-05-01 Shares Bought: 15,000 Average Price Paid: $66.25 Cost: $993,763
Company: Hexcel Corp (HXL)
Name: Guy C Hachey
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-04-29 Shares Bought: 5,000 Average Price Paid: $64.44 Cost: $322,210
Company: Hexcel Corp (HXL)
Name: Cynthia M Egnotovich
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-04-26 Shares Bought: 4,000 Average Price Paid: $64.39 Cost: $257,560
Company: Hexcel Corp (HXL)
Name: Nick L Stanage
Position: Chairman, CEO and President
Transaction Date: 2024-04-26 Shares Bought: 15,000 Average Price Paid: $64.29 Cost: $964,350
Company: Hexcel Corp (HXL)
Name: Jeffrey C Campbell
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-04-25 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $64.13 Cost: $641,300
Company: Hexcel Corp (HXL)
Hexcel Corporation and its subsidiaries are the global leaders in innovative lightweight composites technology. The company accelerates the future of flight, energy generation, transportation, and recreation by excelling in providing revolutionary high-performance material solutions that are lighter, stronger, and tougher, thereby contributing to a better world for all. The extensive product line comprises carbon fiber, specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, honeycomb, resins, engineered core, and composite structures for commercial aircraft, space and defense, and industrial applications. The company have two reportable business segments: composite materials and engineered products. The Composite Materials segment includes carbon fiber, specialty reinforcements, resin systems, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, honeycomb core product lines, and pultruded profiles. The Engineered Products include lightweight high-strength composite structures, radio frequency/electromagnetic interference and microwave absorption materials.
Guy C. Hachey is an independent director at Hexcel Corp. and a member of the Aerospace Industries Association’s Board of Governors. He is also a former Non-Executive Director of Meggitt Ltd. and a former President of Delphi Europe Ltd., Delphi Corp., Bombardier Aerospace, Inc., and BorgWarner USA Corp. He was also a Vice President for Aptiv Services US LLC. Hachey has an undergraduate degree from McGill University and an MBA from Concordia University.
Cynthia M. Egnotovich currently serves as an Independent Director at Hexcel Corp. since 2015 and Triumph Group, Inc. since 2022. Ms. Egnotovich has previously worked at Welbilt, Inc., as Chairman from 2016 to 2022, The Manitowoc Co., Inc., as Independent Director from 2011 to 2016, Manitowoc Foodservice Cos. LLC, as Director, Goodrich Corp., as President-Nacelles & Interior Systems Segment from 2007 to 2012, and United Technologies Corp., as President-Aerospace Systems Customer Service from 2012 to 2013. Ms. Egnotovich earned her undergraduate degrees from Immaculata University and Kent State University (Ohio).
Nick Stanage was appointed director, CEO, and President on August 1, 2013, and Chairman of the Board on January 1, 2014. He has been the President since November 2009, and Chief Operating Officer since May 2012, before taking on the role of CEO. Nick was President of Dana Holding Corporation’s Heavy Vehicle Products business from December 2005 to October 2009, and Vice President and General Manager of Dana’s Commercial Vehicle business from August 2005 to December 2005, before joining Hexcel. Nick held positions of increasing responsibility in engineering, operations, and marketing at Honeywell Inc. from 1986 to 2005, including Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain and Technology for the Consumer Products Group from 2003 to January 2005, and Vice President and General Manager of the Aerospace Group’s Engine Systems and Accessories Division from January 2005 to August 2005.
Mr. Campbell is a former Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of the American Express Company, a global services provider. Mr. Campbell formerly served as CFO of McKesson Corporation, a prominent healthcare services, information technology, and distribution firm, before joining American Express in 2013. Mr. Campbell worked for AMR Corp and its primary subsidiary American Airlines for 13 years before joining McKesson, eventually becoming the company’s CFO in 2002. He worked at American in a range of financial and operational roles, including overseeing the company’s activities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from London. He started his career as a certified public accountant and management consultant with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells.
Opinion: Carbon lightweight composite structures are integral to space, commercial flight, and defense. Multiple large insider purchases by well-placed insiders can only be interpreted as extremely bullish. It’s important to note that the demand for Hexcel’s advanced structural material products is closely correlated to the demand for new commercial aircraft1. Therefore, any changes in the aerospace industry can significantly impact Hexcel’s customer base and revenues. It’s safe to assume that if Boeing or Airbus catch a cold, it could be pneumonia in Hexel.
- Commercial Aerospace: This is the largest market for Hexcel’s products. Approximately 87% of these revenues can be identified as sales to Airbus, Boeing, and their subcontractors for the production of commercial aircraft1.
- Space and Defense: Hexcel’s products are also used in military aircraft, space launch vehicles, and satellites2.
- Industrial: This includes wind turbines, automobiles, and recreational equipment3
Name: Mark Miller
Position: President and COO
Transaction Date: 2024-04-29 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $58.06 Cost: $580,650
Company: Goosehead Insurance Inc. (GSHD)
Goosehead Insurance, Inc. serves as the holding company for Goosehead Financial, LLC, which provides personal lines insurance agency services in the United States. The company provides homeowner’s, automobile, residential property, flood, wind, earthquake, excess liability or umbrella, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, general liability, property, and life insurance products and services. As of December 31, 2023, it had 1,415 franchise sites. The company was created in 2003, and its headquarters are in Westlake, Texas.
Mark Miller has been on the board of directors since March 2018. Mr. Miller was most recently the Chief Financial Officer of Finastra, a multibillion-dollar financial technology business headquartered in London. Mr. Miller also worked as Marketo’s Chief Financial Officer before the firm was sold to Adobe. Before joining Marketo, Mr. Miller was the CFO of Active Network from 2014 to 2016 and L.H.P. Hospital Group in 2013 and 2014. He was Sabre’s Chief Financial Officer from 2010 to 2013. Mr. Miller began his career with Ernst & Young, LTV Corporation, and Hertz Corporation. Mr. Miller holds an accounting degree from Texas Tech University and an MBA in finance from Rice University. He is a Texas-licensed Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Miller was appointed to the board of directors due to his vast experience in corporate operations, finance, and accounting.
Opinion:
Name: Michael F Mahoney
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-05-02 Shares Bought: 9,181 Average Price Paid: $54.49 Cost: $500,294
Company: CVS Health Corp (CVS)
Name: Edward J Ludwig
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-05-02 Shares Bought: 1,000 Average Price Paid: $53.88 Cost: $53,879
Company: CVS Health Corp (CVS)
CVS Health Corporation offers health solutions in the United States. It operates in three segments: healthcare benefits, health services, and pharmacy and consumer wellness. The Health Care Benefits segment provides traditional, optional, and consumer-directed health insurance products and services. The Health Services division provides pharmacy benefit management solutions such as plan design and administration, formulary management, retail pharmacy network management, specialty and mail-order pharmacy, clinical, disease management, and medical spend management services. The Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness section sells prescription and over-the-counter medications, consumer health and beauty products, and personal care items. The corporation was previously known as CVS Caremark Corporation before changing its name to CVS Health Corporation in September 2014. CVS Health Corporation was established in 1996 and is based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Michael F. Mahoney is a businessman who has led seven different companies and is currently the Chairman, President, and CEO of Boston Scientific Corp., Chief Executive Officer of Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc., and Chief Executive Officer of IoGyn, Inc. (both Boston Scientific Corp. subsidiaries), and Chief Executive Officer of CEO Roundtable LLC. Michael F. Mahoney also serves on the boards of seven other corporations. He previously served as chairman worldwide of Medical Devices & Diagnostics at Johnson & Johnson, Group Chairman at DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary), CEO of IntElect Medical, Inc., President & CEO of Global Healthcare Exchange LLC, and General Manager-Healthcare Information Technology at General Electric Medical Systems (Wisconsin). He earned an MBA from Wake Forest University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa.
Edward J. Ludwig has been a director at Boston Scientific since March 2014. Mr. Ludwig formerly served as chairman of the board of Becton, Dickinson, and Business, a multinational medical technology business, from February 2002 until June 2012. He also served as BDX’s CEO from January 2000 to September 2011 and as president from May 1999 to December 2008. Mr. Ludwig joined BDX in 1979 as a senior financial analyst. Before joining BDX, Mr. Ludwig worked as a senior auditor at Coopers and Lybrand, where he received his CPA, and as a financial and strategic analyst for Kidde, Inc. Mr. Ludwig is now a director of CVS Health Corporation. He previously served as a director of Aetna, Inc., Xylem, Inc., as vice chair of the Hackensack University Medical Centre Network’s board of trustees, and as Chairman of the Board and Director of POCARED, a privately held infectious disease diagnostics firm. Mr. Ludwig earned a B.A. in economics and accounting from The College of the Holy Cross and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Opinion:
Name: Willie CW Chiang
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-05-01 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $49.50 Cost: $494,955
Company: Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL)
Delta Air Lines, Inc. operates scheduled flights for passengers and cargo in the United States and abroad. The corporation operates in two segments: airline and refinery. Its domestic network consisted of core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and its international network consisted of hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Sao Paulo, Seoul-Incheon, and Tokyo. The company sells tickets through a variety of distribution methods, including delta.com and the Fly Delta app; serves as bookings specialists; and operates both online travel and traditional brick-and-mortar agencies. It also offers aircraft maintenance and engineering support, repair, and overhaul services, as well as vacation packages to third-party customers. The company operates with a fleet of around 1,273 aircraft. Delta Air Lines, Inc., was formed in 1924 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mr. Chiang is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. and its general partner holding company, Plains GP Holdings, L.P. PAA is a publicly listed master limited partnership that owns and runs midstream energy infrastructure while also offering logistical services for crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas. He has been the Chief Executive Officer of PAA and PAGP since October 2018, Chairman since January 2020, and a director since February 2017. Mr. Chiang previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of PAA and PAGP from January 2018 to October 2018, as well as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the company’s operating and commercial activities in the United States from August 2015 to December 2017. He joined PAA and PAGP in 2015 after previously serving as Executive Vice President, Operations at Occidental Petroleum Corporation from 2012 to 2015. Mr. Chiang began his career in refining with Chevron in 1981.
Opinion: Board memberships like Delta are choice retirement fare. I don’t put any credence in first-time purchases of newly appointed board members.
Name: Ron A. Bloom
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-05-01 Shares Bought: 25,000 Average Price Paid: $17.00 Cost: $424,875
Company: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)
Name: Lourenco Goncalves
Position: Chairman, President & CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-05-01 Shares Bought: 60,000 Average Price Paid: $16.76 Cost: $1,005,666
Company: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is a flat-rolled steel producer in North America. The company provides hot-rolled, cold-rolled, electro-galvanized, hot-dip galvanized, hot-dip galvannealed, aluminized, galvalume, enameling, and advanced high-strength steel products; austenitic, martensitic, duplex, precipitation hardening, and ferritic stainless steel products; plates; and grain-oriented and non-oriented electrical steel products, as well as slab, scrap, iron ore, coal, and coke. It also offers tubular components such as carbon steel, stainless steel, and electric resistance welded tubes. In addition, the company provides tinplate products such as electrolytic tin-coated and chrome-coated sheets, tin mill products, tooling and sampling, ingots, rolled blooms, cast blooms, and hot-briquetted iron goods. Additionally, it owns five iron ore mines in Minnesota and Michigan. The company’s customers include automotive, infrastructure and manufacturing, distributors and converters, and steel producers. Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc. was formed in 1847 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Bloom currently serves as the Vice Chairman and Managing Partner of Brookfield Asset Management’s Private Equity Group. He is also a partner at Commonweal Ventures, a venture financing firm that focuses on early-stage digital entrepreneurs. Mr. Bloom was a member of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service from August 2019 to December 2021, serving as Chair during his last year. Mr. Bloom formerly served as the Vice Chair and Managing Director of Lazard. Before joining Lazard, Mr. Bloom served as Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy, where he managed policy development and strategic planning for the Administration’s efforts to revitalize the manufacturing sector. Prior to joining the White House, he served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury, where he helped restructure General Motors and Chrysler LLC. Mr. Bloom received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and graduated with honors from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Lourenco Goncalves has been Cleveland-Cliffs’ Chairman, President, and CEO since August 2014. He created and led the company through a major strategic initiative that transformed Cleveland-Cliffs into a key player in the U.S. steel industry, beginning with a total financial turnaround and progressing to growth initiatives in the metallics market and entry into the steel sector. Before joining Cleveland-Cliffs, Mr. Goncalves was the Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of Metals USA Holdings Corp. for nearly a decade. Before joining Metals USA, Mr. Goncalves was President and CEO of California Steel Industries, Inc. for 5 years. Mr. Goncalves is a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute. Mr. Gonçalves is a Distinguished Member and Fellow of the Association for Iron and Steel Technology. In 2021, he got AIST’s “Steelmaker of the Year” award. Mr. Goncalves holds a Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Military Institute of Engineering in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Opinion: You never know when Gonzales will walk up and say enough is enough; he wants United States Steel and is finally willing to pay up for it. Even that is likely to be little more than a short-term impact as the combined vertically integrated iron ore and steel manufacturer would dominate domestic markets. The combined companies would be a behemoths in North America.
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Name: Ann S. Gerdin / Angela K Janssen / Julie J Durr
Position: Co-Trustee of 10% Owner/10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2024-04-26 Shares Bought: 275,092 Average Price Paid: $10.14 Cost: $2,788,294
Company: Heartland Express Inc (HTLD)
Name: Michael J Gerdin
Position: Chief Executive Officer/10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2024-05-01 Shares Bought: 107,605 Average Price Paid: $10.74 Cost: $1,155,307
Transaction Date: 2024-04-26 Shares Bought: 190,696 Average Price Paid: $10.11 Cost: $1,928,490
Company: Heartland Express Inc (HTLD)
Heartland Express, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate as short-to-medium and long-haul freight carriers in the United States and Canada. It specializes in countrywide asset-based dry van truckload service for shippers, cross-border freight and other transportation services, and temperature-controlled truckload services. The company operates under the brand names Heartland Express and Millis Transfer. It primarily services merchants and manufacturers in the consumer goods, appliances, food, and automotive sectors. The company was created in 1978 and is based in North Liberty, Iowa.
Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust, Mr. Gerdin, Mrs. Durr, and Mrs. Janssen are co-founders of Gerdin Family Investments LP. Mrs. Durr, Mrs. Janssen, and Mrs. Gerdin are co-trustees in the Ann S. Gerdin Revocable Trust.
Michael Gerdin, who began his career with Heartland Express in 1983 as a youngster working in the truck wash bay, now leads the company. From 1998 to 2001, Mike served as President of A&M Express, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heartland Express. Michael was appointed Vice-President of Regional Operations in 2001, followed by President of the Company in 2006. Mike obtained a bachelor’s degree in business management from Luther College.
Opinion:I don’t know why they are buying and they are buying quite a bit of shares. T
The management is remarkably very late on providing any details of the business or motivation where they wanna go with the business and it’s quite disappointing. I couldn’t find a webcast. I could not find a detailed press release. I had not looked at the SEC filing. I’ll do that and I will call the company to see if I can get any information more information. the reason I got into this deal was they were buying a Mexican freight company and with all the near shoring I thought that could be an added lift, but I haven’t really heard anything about it since that purchase.
Name: Kathleen E Johnson
Position: President & CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-05-02 Shares Bought: 750,000 Average Price Paid: $1.28 Cost: $959,850
Company: Lumen Technologies Inc.(LUMN)
Lumen Technologies, Inc., a facility-based technology and communications firm, offers a wide range of integrated products and services to both commercial and residential customers in the United States and throughout the world. Business and Mass Markets are the company’s two segments. It provides dark fiber, edge cloud services, internet protocol, managed security, software-defined wide area networks, secure access service edge, unified communications and collaboration, and optical wavelengths services; ethernet and VPN data network services; and legacy cash flow management services, such as time division multiplexing voice, private line, and other legacy services, as well as communication equipment and IT solutions. The company also offers high- and low-speed broadband service to residential and small business users, as well as local and long-distance phone services, professional services, and other ancillary services, as well as federal broadband and state
Before being renamed to Lumen Technologies in 2020, the company was known as CenturyLink, Inc.12. Prior to that, it had also been known as CenturyTel, Inc., Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc., and Central Telephone and Electronics, Inc1. It’s worth noting that after the rebranding in 2020, CenturyLink has been maintained as one of the three separate entities under Lumen Technologies3.
Lumen’s President and CEO, Kate Johnson, also serves on the company’s board of directors. Kate is an experienced business technology executive who has led business and digital transformation success at the world’s top Fortune 100 technology organizations. Kate leads with strategic and go-to-market abilities honed over 20 years as a growth-oriented B2B corporate technology disruptor. Kate joined the company in 2022. Kate previously worked as an executive at Microsoft, GE Digital, and Oracle, as well as in commercial and technical leadership roles at Red Hat, UBS Investment Bank, and Deloitte Consulting. Kate received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She lives in Denver with her family and has served on UPS’s board of directors since 2020.
Opinion: The Bell monopoly was so fast that taking all these lame pieces and sorting them out seemed like a tremendous waste of inefficiency. But that’s progress in this country
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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 with any stock market experience 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 of 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, we analyze unusual patterns with selling, 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 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.
This blog is solely for educational purposes and the author’s own amusement. Think of the blog as part of my personal investment journal that I am willing to share with the DIY investor. There are also many parts that I am not willing to share if I think it could influence trading action or be detrimental to the Fund’s partners. We could be long, short, or have no position at all in any of the stocks mentioned and express no written or implied obligation to disclose any of that.
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,
