Insiders buy their stock when they think it’s cheap or sometimes when they want to keep their jobs. The investor must figure out that difference. There are a few names I’d venture to short on this list if the Vig is not too high. There are a few names that offer compelling narratives, if not fundamentals.
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Name: Gary L Hinkle
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-08-23 Shares Bought: 5,000 Average Price Paid: $68.09 Cost: $340,450
Company: Burke & Herbert Financial Services Corp. (BHRB)
Burke & Herbert Financial Services Corporation was formed in 1852 and is based in Alexandria, Virginia. The corporation serves as the bank holding company for Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust corporation, which offers a variety of community banking products and services in Virginia and Maryland. It provides consumer and commercial deposit products, including digital banking, demand, negotiable order of withdrawal, money market, and savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also offers loans for commercial real estate, single-family residential, owner-occupied commercial real estate, residential mortgage, acquisition, construction and development, commercial and industrial, consumer non-real estate, and other loans. Additionally, it provides treasury and cash management services, as well as online and mobile banking, wealth, and trust services.
Gary L. Hinkle has been a director since 19931. Mr. Hinkle is the current President of Hinkle Trucking, Inc., Dettinburn Transport, Inc., Mt. Storm Fuel Inc., and H. T. Services, Inc. He has over 35 years of experience owning and operating his businesses. He formerly served as an Independent Director at Summit Financial Group, Inc. from 1993 until 2024, as well as a Director at Summit Community Bank, Inc.
Opinion: This looks like the KRE Region Banking ETF so I don’t see much reason to take idiosyncratic risk in picking a stock.
Name: Brian Jacobs
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-08-27 Shares Bought: 25,000 Average Price Paid: $53.54 Cost: $1,338,397
Company: BILL Holdings Inc. (BILL)
Name: Rene A. Lacerte
Position: CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-08-26 Shares Bought: 42,248 Average Price Paid: $49.60 Cost: $2,095,349
Company: BILL Holdings Inc. (BILL)
Name: John R. Rettig
Position: CFO
Transaction Date: 2024-08-26 Shares Bought: 21,124 Average Price Paid: $49.40 Cost: $1,043,481
Company: BILL Holdings Inc. (BILL)
BILL Holdings, Inc. was established in 2006 and is based in San Jose, California. BILL Holdings, Inc. provides a financial operations platform for small and medium-sized enterprises globally. The company offers software-as-a-service, cloud-based payments, and spend management products that allow users to automate accounts payable and receivable transactions, as well as connect businesses with suppliers and/or customers to do business, eliminate expense reports, manage cash flows, and improve office efficiency. They also provide onboarding, implementation, and continuing support and training services. In addition, the company’s artificial intelligence-enabled financial software platform connects suppliers and customers. The company was previously known as Bill.com Holdings, Inc., but changed its name to BILL Holdings, Inc. in February 2023.
Brian Jacobs has served on the board of directors since August 2007. Mr. Jacobs has been the founder and general partner of Emergence Capital Partners, a venture capital firm, since January 2003, and the founder and managing partner of Moai Capital, a seed capital firm, since January 2018. Mr. Jacobs also sits on the boards of directors for many privately held corporations. Mr. Jacobs earned a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
René Lacerte is a technology entrepreneur who founded and is the CEO of BILL, a financial operations leader for small and medium-sized firms. René established BILL in 2006 after seeing that business owners needed a means to streamline payments so they could focus on their core operations. In 2019, BILL went public. At BILL, he collaborates with some of the country’s top banks and accountancy companies to reimagine financial operations. He is a fourth-generation entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in banking, software, and payments. Before BILL, René established PayCycle, the first and largest online payroll service, which Intuit purchased in 2009. He spent five years at Intuit, where he expanded the bill payment and credit card businesses and launched the company’s first connected payroll solution. He earned an M.S. in industrial engineering and a B.A. in quantitative economics from Stanford University.
John, BILL’s President and Chief Financial Officer, has been with the company since 2014. John brings over 25 years of strategic financial and corporate leadership experience from a variety of sectors to BILL. He was previously the Chief Financial Officer at Exponential Interactive, Inc., a leading global digital media firm with 750 employees and operations in 26 countries. John’s previous expertise includes senior financial leadership roles with rapid growth firms in the ecommerce, software, and Internet sectors, following a stint in accounting for a biomedical consulting firm. John has extensive leadership experience assisting technology firms in scaling, collaborating with the sell- and buy-side investor communities, and carrying out transactions such as M&A and financing. John oversaw BILL’s IPO in 2019. John now serves on the boards of Arcadia, a climate technology firm enabling a zero-carbon economy, and Vestwell, a fintech that powers savings programs for businesses and individuals across the country. John earned a B.S. from St. Mary’s College.
Opinion: Intuit may have gained from keeping Rene Lacerte on board. Currently, BILL stands as a strong rival. While BILL is fulfilling its promises to customers, the recent drop in the net retention ratio from traditionally high levels is concerning. The challenge is whether to invest in a company that depends on solving business issues that Intuit or NetSuite might not completely address. It’s unclear if Intuit’s integration of an advanced payment solution into QuickBooks would lead customers to switch from BILL, mainly if BILL’s services are just part of a larger accounting suite.
These are large purchases and probably should not be ignored. I’m just having difficulty finding conviction after reading Post on the Fly comments “Mizuho lowered the firm’s price target on Bill to $52 from $60 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The company reported solid fiscal Q4 results, exceeding consensus revenue estimates, driven largely by a beat in transaction revenue, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, the firm says net revenue retention declined to 92% and management’s initial fiscal 2025 guidance of 10%-12% revenue growth was below consensus. Bill will invest $45M in fiscal 2025 to reaccelerate growth back to its 20% target in fiscal 2026, Mizuho points out. It continues to believe the tougher macro environment coupled with competitive pressures from Intuit will weigh on Bill’s longer-term growth potential.
Name: Albert Monaco
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-08-26 Shares Bought: 31,500 Average Price Paid: $31.38 Cost: $988,376
Company: Weyerhaeuser Co (WY)
The Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest private owners of timberlands, began operations in 1900. The company owns or controls roughly 11 million acres of timberland in the United States and manages additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. They manage these timberlands in a sustainable manner using internationally accepted forestry standards. They are also one of the major producers of wood goods in North America. The organization is a real estate investment trust. The company’s common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the WY ticker.
Al Monaco, a business director since 2020, formerly served as president and chief executive officer and director of Enbridge Inc. from 2012 to January 2023. Mr. Monaco previously held several senior executive positions at Enbridge, including executive vice president of natural Gas Transmission and Renewable Energy; executive vice president of major Projects Execution; president of Enbridge Gas Distribution; and senior vice president of corporate Planning and Development, well as board positions with Enbridge and its affiliated companies/publicly traded entities. Mr. Monaco now serves on the board of directors of the Canadian National Railway Company, where he is a member of the Human Resources and Governance committees. He was also a director of the American Petroleum Institute, where he served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Finance Committee. Mr. Monaco also serves on the U.S. National Petroleum Council, the Business Council of Canada, the Business Council of Alberta, and the Catalyst Canada Advisory Board.
Opinion: Down, down, down, all the metrics are going down, but Monaco wants to shell out $1 million. Go figure, maybe this is as bad as its going to get?
Name: Jennifer M Johnson
Position: President and CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-08-23 Shares Bought: 18,900 Average Price Paid: $20.95 Cost: $396,021
Company: Franklin Resources Inc (BEN)
Franklin Resources, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides services to individuals, institutions, pension plans, trusts, and partnerships. It launches equity, fixed-income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries. The firm invests in public equity, fixed-income, and alternative markets. Franklin Resources, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in San Mateo, California with an additional office in Calgary, Canada; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Fort Lauderdale, United States; Hyderabad, India; London, United Kingdom; Rancho Cordova, United States; Shanghai, China; Singapore; Stamford, United States; and Vienna, Austria.
Jenny Johnson became Franklin Templeton’s President & CEO in February 2020. Before becoming CEO in February 2020, Ms. Johnson had senior positions in all key business areas, including investment management, distribution, technology, operations, and wealth management. Ms. Johnson has garnered numerous accolades, including inclusion on Forbes’ “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list in 2023 and 2022, as well as the “50 Over 50” list in 2022. Ms. Johnson serves on several boards, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s International Advisory Panel, the NYSE Board Advisory Council, and the US-Brazil CEO Forum, which she was named to in 2023. Ms. Johnson is also a board member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Foundation, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Catalyst. She has served on several boards, including Stanford’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital and the San Francisco Giants. Ms. Johnson received her B.A. in economics from the University of California, Davis.
Opinion: It’s so bad it has to get better. Or is this: I want to hold onto my job, so I’m a believer; yes, I am, but the more I give, all I get is pain.
Name: Gregory G. McIlwain
Position: EVP – Operations
Transaction Date: 2024-08-23 Shares Bought: 20,000 Average Price Paid: $15.68 Cost: $313,600
Company: Energy Transfer LP (ET)
Energy Transfer LP was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Energy Transfer LP is a Delaware limited partnership whose common units trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “ET.” Sunoco LP and USAC, both publicly traded master limited partnerships, own the corporation’s assets. Energy Transfer generates cash flow through dividends paid by its companies, which include Sunoco LP and USAC. The amount of cash distributed to us by their subsidiaries is decided by both the earnings from their particular business activities and the available cash. Energy Transfer’s primary financial requirements include partner payouts, general and administrative expenses, and loan repayment. After completing the prior cash requirements, Energy Transfer distributes any remaining funds to Unitholders quarterly.
Gregg G. Mcilwain was named Executive Vice President of Operations of Energy Transfer in April 2022. Mr. Mcilwain has more than 30 years of expertise in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Mcilwain has been with the Partnership since it acquired Transwestern Pipeline in 2006, and he has held top leadership positions in the operations department for over a decade, most recently as the department’s top Vice President. Before joining Energy Transfer, he worked for Texas Utilities Generating Company and several Enron companies. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from Texas A&M.
Opinion: I value this company mainly because insiders regularly acquire shares, and the stock offers significant dividends. However, there appears to be an anomaly with this particular transaction; to my knowledge, the stock did not trade at $15.68 on the reported date of the transaction.
Name: David Golub
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2024-08-22 Shares Bought: 40,000 Average Price Paid: $15.04 Cost: $601,400
Company: Golub Capital Bdc Inc. (GBDC)
Golub Capital BDC, Inc. is a business development company that functions as an externally managed closed-end non-diversified management investment vehicle. The company invests in middle-market enterprises through debt and minority stock, which are usually supported by private equity investors. It typically invests in a wide range of consumer services, including vehicles, healthcare technology, insurance, healthcare equipment and supplies, hotels, restaurants, entertainment, healthcare providers and services, IT services, and specialized retail. The corporation plans to invest in the United States. The company’s primary investments include first-lien traditional senior debt, first-lien one-stop, junior debt, equity, senior secured, one-stop, unitranche, second-lien, subordinated, and mezzanine loans made by middle-market firms, as well as warrants.
Mr. Golub is the CEO of Golub Capital BDC. He also serves as President of Golub Capital and a member of GC Advisors LLC’s Investment Committee. Before joining Golub Capital in 2003, Mr. Golub was a Managing Director at Centre Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm. Mr. Golub is a member of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research’s Founders Council, where he formerly served as chairman and director for many years. Mr. Golub is a member of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Advisory Council. In addition, he is a member of the Association of Marshall Scholars’ Directors Circle. Mr. Golub currently serves on the board of directors for Burton Snowboards and has previously served on the boards of other public and private companies. Mr. Golub earned his AB magna cum laude in Government from Harvard College. He received an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Opinion: Golub has recently been buying up his namesake. It seems like a timely purchase, with interest rates headed lower.
Name: Kenneth Duane Seipel
Position: Interim CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-08-28 Shares Bought: 25,000 Average Price Paid: $14.39 Cost: $359,750
Company: Citi Trends Inc (CTRN)
Citi Trends, Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Savannah, Georgia. Citi Trends, Inc. operates as a value retailer of fashion apparel, accessories, and home goods. The company offers apparel, such as fashion sportswear and footwear for men and ladies, as well as apparel for kids, including newborns, infants, toddlers, boys, and girls; sleepwear, lingerie, and scrubs for ladies; and kids’ uniforms and accessories. It also provides accessories and beauty products that include handbags, luggage, hats, belts, sunglasses, jewelry, and watches, as well as offers outerwear for men and women. In addition, the company offers home and lifestyle products comprising home products for the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and decorative accessories; and food, tech, team sports, health, and products, as well as seasonal items, books, and toys. Citi Trends, Inc. provides its products primarily to African American and multicultural families in the United States. The company was formerly known as Allied Fashion, Inc. and changed its name to Citi Trends, Inc. in 2001.
Kenneth Duane Seipel has been the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Citi Trends, Inc. since 2024, and the Lead Independent Director at West Marine, Inc. since 2021. He previously served as President, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and COO of Seal123, Inc. from 2012 to 2013, Chief Executive Officer of Gabriel Brothers, Inc. from 2013 to 2017, Executive Vice President, Operations, and Store Design at Old Navy LLC from 2003 to 2008, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Wet Seal LLC from 2011 to 2013, and President and Chief Marketing Officer of Pamida Discount Stores LLC from 2009 to 2011. He also served as a Principal at Retail Business Optimization LLC from 2017 to 2018. Mr. Seipel earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.
Opinion: The interim CEO has nothing to lose here, but as an investor you certainly do.
Name: Douglas Forsyth
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-08-22 Shares Bought: 75,000 Average Price Paid: $13.83 Cost: 1,037,328.00
Company: Inhibrx Biosciences Inc. (INBX)
Inhibrx Biosciences, Inc. was created in 2024 and is headquartered in La Jolla, California. The company is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that creates biological therapeutics for patients with life-threatening disorders. INBRX-109, a tetravalent therapeutic candidate targeting death-receptor 5 that is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic conventional chondrosarcoma; and INBRX-106, a hexavalent sdAb-based therapeutic candidate targeting OX4 that is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of metastatic solid tumor, non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, gastric (GIST), and gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and urothelial (transitional) cell carcinoma.
Mr. Forsyth has been a member of our Board since April 2018. From 1994 to February 2022, Mr. Forsyth was a portfolio manager, managing director, and Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Global Investors GmbH’s U.S. Income & Growth Strategies. Mr. Forsyth was also the leader of the Allianz Income and Growth Strategies team, where he was in charge of portfolio management, trading, and research, as well as overseeing all elements of the platform’s operations, including product creation and execution. Mr. Forsyth has been the primary portfolio manager for the Allianz U.S. High Yield Bond strategy from its inception in August 1994, and he took over the lead portfolio management duty for the firm’s U.S. Convertible strategy in 1998. Mr. Forsyth now serves or has served on a number of non-public corporate boards spanning a wide range of industries, as well as several nonprofit boards. Mr. Forsyth earned a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Iowa.
Opinion: I’m on the INBX train. I’ve previously blogged about this company. It reminds me of Biohaven, where Pfizer paid out billions, but the management stayed to spin out a new company and invest heavily into it. It paid off for Biohaven; I bet it pays off big for Inhibrx. At least insiders are betting big that it will.
Name: Arkoma Drilling L.P. / Williston Drilling L.P. / Blue Star Exploration Corp / Jerral W. Jones
Position: 10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2024-08-23 Shares Bought: 1,716,538 Average Price Paid: $11.30 Cost: $19,395,166
Company: Comstock Resources Inc (CRK)
Comstock Resources, Inc. was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Frisco, Texas. Comstock Resources, Inc., a subsidiary of Arkoma Drilling, L.P., is an independent energy business that acquires, explores, develops, and produces natural gas and oil properties in the United States. The company’s resources are located in the Haynesville and Bossier shales in north Louisiana and east Texas.
Arkoma Drilling is wholly-owned by Dallas businessman and owner of the Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd., Jerry Jones.
Williston Drilling is owned by Dallas businessman and owner of the Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd., Jerry Jones, and his family.
Blue Star Exploration Ghana Limited is an independent Ghanaian oil and gas exploration and production company. Blue Star intends to be an African independent oil and gas exploration company focused on frontier exploration acreage and brownfield assets. The company intends to actively add assets to its portfolio, notably in the West African region, while also exploring other areas of the oil and gas value chain. The Blue Star method is based on three pillars: employing exceptional personnel and forming local partnerships to produce value in the oil and gas exploration and production industries.
Jerral Wayne Jones Sr. is an American businessman who owns, controls and manages the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League. Jerral W. Jones is the current President and Director of Blue Star Exploration Co., having previously served as President and General Manager of Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd. since 2012. Mr. Jones obtained his master’s degree from the University of Arkansas.
Opinion: Jerry Jones already owns 70% of this natural gas producer. If domestic LNG should get unbottled, this company stands to win big.
Name: Eric Singer
Position: President and CEO
Transaction Date: 2024-08-27 Shares Bought: 50,000 Average Price Paid: $8.77 Cost: $438,425
Company: Immersion Corp (IMMR)
Name: William C Martin
Position: Chief Strategy Officer
Transaction Date: 2024-08-27 Shares Bought: 20,000 Average Price Paid: $8.76 Cost: $175,166
Company: Immersion Corp (IMMR)
Immersion Corporation was established in 1993 and is based in Aventura, Florida. The company, along with its subsidiaries, creates, designs, develops, and licenses haptic technologies that allow people in North America, Europe, and Asia to interact with and experience diverse digital products through touch. The company offers technology, patent, and mixed licensing. It covers a variety of markets, including mobility, gaming, automotive, virtual and augmented reality, wearables, and residential, commercial, and industrial Internet of Things.
Eric Singer is the President, CEO, and Chairman of Immersion Corporation, a licensing firm founded in 2023 to focus on the invention, acceleration, and scalability of revolutionary haptic technology through licensing. He served as Executive Chairman of Immersion from 2020 until 2023. He is also the President and CEO of Toro 18, a company completely owned by Immersion. Eric has extensive experience on public boards, and he has served as the lead independent director of A10 Networks, an application controller and firewall cloud security firm, since September 2021. Previously, he served on the boards of Velodyne Lidar; Quantum Corporation, a video data storage and management company; Numerex Corp., a provider of managed machine-to-machine enterprise solutions enabling the Internet of Things; RhythmOne plc and YuMe, Inc., each a provider of brand video advertising software and audience data; Support.com, Inc., a provider of tech support and support center services; Meru Networks, Inc., a Wi-Fi network solutions company; and PLX Technology. Eric holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University.
Mr. Martin joined Immersion’s board of directors in August 2019 and has been serving as its Chief Strategy Officer since December 2021. Mr. Martin has substantial expertise as a board member, investor, and entrepreneur. He formerly managed a private investment vehicle for Raging Capital Management from 2006 until 2020, which is currently being liquidated. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded various financial information companies, including Raging Bull (1997) and InsiderScore (2004). Mr. Martin has served on numerous public company boards, including nine years on the board of Bankrate, Inc., a consumer finance company acquired in 2009; the board of Salary.com, Inc., a compensation data and software company acquired in 2010; and the board of Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., a semiconductor company purchased in 2015. Mr. Martin also runs his own family office, Raging Capital Ventures.
Opinion: Something is going on at Imm. Revenues more than doubled from Q1 2024 to Q2 and were up 13x year over year reflecting the purchase of Barnes and Noble. This is a volatile impossible to analyze situation at this time.
Name: Liberty 77 Capital L.P. / Liberty 77 Fund International L.P. / STM Partners LLC / Steven T Mnuchin
Position: 10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2024-08-28 Shares Bought: 514,492 Average Price Paid: $7.18 Cost: $3,692,493
Company: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF-B)
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation was created in 1986, and its headquarters are in Santa Monica, California. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. operates in the film, television, subscription, and location-based entertainment industries in the United States, Canada, and worldwide. The corporation is structured into three business units: film, television production, and media networks. The Motion Picture division develops and produces feature films, acquires North American and global distribution rights, distributes North American feature films to theaters, home entertainment, and television, and licenses global distribution rights. Television Production creates, produces, and distributes series, movies, miniseries, and nonfiction programs worldwide. Media Networks distributes STARZ-branded premium subscription video services domestically and internationally through over-the-top platforms and video programming distributors like cable operators, satellite TV providers, and telecommunications companies.
Liberty 77 Capital L.P., also called Liberty Strategic Capital, is a private equity firm. The organization mostly invests in technological firms. Liberty Strategic Capital services clients throughout Washington. The firm, created in 2021, is led by Steven T. Mnuchin, a former Secretary of the Treasury.
Liberty 77 Fund International LP engages in the Financial Services sector. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
STM Partners LLC, a Delaware limited liability entity, has indirect authority over the Liberty Manager and the Liberty Funds’ general partner. Steven T. Mnuchin is the President of STM Partners LLC.
Steven T. Mnuchin is the founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, as well as the chair of its Investment Committee. Mr. Mnuchin previously served as the 77th Secretary of the Treasury from February 2017 to January 2021. Mr. Mnuchin was in charge of guiding the US Treasury, which aims to maintain a strong economy, stimulate economic growth, and create job opportunities by establishing conditions conducive to success both at home and abroad. Mr. Mnuchin was also in charge of cybersecurity for the financial services sector and all Treasury divisions, including the IRS. Before his confirmation, he founded, chaired, and led Dune Capital Management. He founded OneWest Bank Group LLC and served as Chairman and CEO until the company was sold to CIT Group Inc. Secretary Mnuchin previously worked for The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., where he was a Partner and Chief Information Officer, in charge of the firm’s global information and technology strategy and operations. Secretary Mnuchin has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.
Opinion: The film library alone is worth what Lions Gate is trading at, or at least that’s what Mnuchin’s advisors are likely telling him.
Name: Neil S Subin
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-08-23 Shares Bought: 250,000 Average Price Paid: $6.93 Cost: $1,731,500
Company: Nextnav Inc. (NN)
NextNav Inc. was created in 2007 and is based in McLean, VA. NextNav Inc. offers next-generation positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems in the United States. It provides Pinnacle, a dedicated vertical positioning network that covers large metropolitan areas, and includes devices equipped with a barometric pressure sensor for the best wide-area altitude service. The company also offers TerraPoiNT, a 3D PNT system that uses GPS for positioning, navigation, and timing via a land-based satellite constellation. The company supports Wi-Fi, telecommunications, public safety, gaming and location apps, and critical infrastructure applications.
Neil S. Subin joined the company’s board of directors on August 10, 2022. Neil presently works as the Chief Investment Officer for MILFAM, a single-family office. Neil S. Subin is an Independent Director at NextNav, Inc., Chairman of Broadbill Investment Partners LP, President of Trendex Capital Management Corp., and Chief Investment Officer of Milfam LLC. He serves on the Boards of Directors for NextNav, Inc., FiberTower Corp., Alimco Financial Corp., DynTek, Inc., Federal-Mogul Motorparts LLC, Frontiersman Holdings, Inc., and Quantlab Financial LLC. Mr. Subin has previously worked as an Independent Director for Centrus Energy Corp., Cohen & Co., Inc., Phosphate Holdings, Inc., Hancock Fabrics, Inc., HC2 Holdings, Inc., Movie Gallery, Inc., Federal-Mogul Holdings LLC, and Fahnestock & Co., Inc. He earned his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College.
Opinion: If you understand how a CEO can be paid $10.65 million with Company last year revenues of $3.87 million, please enlighten me.
Name: Scott Justin Bowman
Position: Chief Financial Officer
Transaction Date: 2024-08-29 Shares Bought: 100,000 Average Price Paid: $2.58 Cost: $258,000
Company: Leslie’s Inc. (LESL)
Name: John Strain
Position: Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board
Transaction Date: 2024-08-29 Shares Bought: 120,000 Average Price Paid: $2.53 Cost: $303,600
Company: Leslie’s Inc. (LESL)
Leslie’s, Inc. was formed in 1963 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Leslie’s, Inc. is a direct-to-consumer pool and spa care company in the United States. The company markets and sells pool and spa supplies, as well as other associated products and services. It also sells pool and spa maintenance supplies such as chemicals, equipment, and components, cleaning and maintenance equipment, and safety, recreational, and fitness products. Additionally, the company offers installation and repair services for pool and spa equipment. It also offers its products on e-commerce platforms and third-party marketplaces. The company provides complimentary commercial-grade in-store water testing and analysis services. It serves residential, professional, and commercial customers.
Mr. Bowman joined the Company as Chief Financial Officer Designate in July 2023, becoming Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer in August 2023. Mr. Bowman most recently worked as Chief Financial Officer for True Food Kitchen, having previously served as Chief Financial Officer for Dave & Buster’s, a restaurant and entertainment company, from 2019 to 2021 and Hibbett Sports, an athletic retail chain, between 2012 and 2019. Mr. Bowman formerly worked as a Divisional CFO at The Home Depot, where he held leadership positions in numerous corporate finance roles. He began his career in the audit department of The Sherwin-Williams Company. Mr. Bowman is a CPA with an MBA from Emory Goizueta Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from Miami University (Ohio).
Mr. Strain joined the Board in August 2018 and has served as Chairman since March 2024. Mr. Strain was the Head of e-commerce and Technology at The Gap, Inc. from October 2019 to May 2022. The Gap, Inc. is a 1969-founded American apparel and accessories shop with a global presence. Mr. Strain’s responsibilities included technology, product management, data and analytics, and loyalty and payments. Mr. Strain has nearly 30 years of experience in retail technology and e-commerce, and he brings a consumer-centric attitude to a delivery orientation that has resulted in successful digital transformations. Before joining The Gap, Inc., Mr. Strain was Salesforce, Inc.’s General Manager of the Retail and Consumer Goods Industry. Mr. Strain also served as Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. for 11 years, overseeing technology, product management, and digital marketing. Mr. Strain earned a B.S. in Finance from Santa Clara University and was a member of the Retail Management Institute.
Opinion: This is a tough turnaround.
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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,
