As I wrote last week, nothing fazes this market’s relentless path higher—not higher rates, not even a sharp jump in oil prices. An Israeli retribution strike against Iranian oil facilities hangs like the sword of Damocles, ready to decapitate the entire bull run. Even a moderate oil price lift helped the beleaguered oil and gas patch, providing more fuel for the fire.
Name: Christopher Daniel Morris
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2023-10-07 Shares Bought: 14,912 Average Price Paid: $33.67 Cost: $502,162
Company: Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. (PLAY)
Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. was formed in 1982 and is based in Coppell, Texas. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. owns and operates entertainment and dining facilities for adults and families throughout North America. Its establishments provide a menu of entrées and appetizers, a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and a variety of entertainment activities based on playing games and watching live sports and other broadcast events. The company operates its venues under the Dave & Buster’s and Main Event brands.
Chris Morris assumed the current position as CEO and Board member following the completion of the merger of Dave & Buster’s and Main Event in June 2022, after serving as CEO of Main Event Entertainment for nearly four years. Mr. Morris formerly served as President of California Pizza Kitchen from June 2014 to March 2018, as well as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of On the Border from 2010 to 2014. From 2004 to 2010, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of CEC Entertainment, Inc. Before that, Mr. Morris worked at NPC International, Inc. from 1999 to 2004, Applebee’s International, Inc. from 1996 to 1999, and Deloitte & Touche from 1992 to 1996. Mr. Morris provides extensive experience in hospitality, entertainment, leadership, strategic planning, operations, finance, investment, and public company governance to the Company and its Board of Directors.
Opinion:
Name: Kristiina MD Vuori
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2023-10-03 Shares Bought: 6,667 Average Price Paid: $15.00 Cost: $100,005
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 produces biological treatments for people with life-threatening illnesses. 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 cell carcinoma.
Kristiina Vuori has been on the board of directors since May 2019. Dr. Vuori has been a Professor at the National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, or the Institute, a non-profit research organization with major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases, since January 1995. In addition, Dr. Vuori served as the Institute’s President from January 2010 until July 2022. She worked as the Institute’s EVP for Scientific Affairs from 2008 to 2010, Director of the Cancer Center from 2005 to 2013, and Deputy Director of the Cancer Center from 2003 to 2005. Dr. Vuori has also served on the boards of Inhibrx, Inc., a public biotechnology company, since October 2021; Forian, Inc., a public health data analytics company, since March 2021; Sio Gene Therapies, Inc., a public gene therapy company, since October 2020; and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, a non-profit biomedical research institute, since January 2011. Dr. Vuori got her M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Oulu in Finland.
Opinion:
Name: Chun R Ding
Position: 10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2023-10-01 Shares Bought: 78,829 Average Price Paid: $13.00 Cost: $1,024,698
Company: GRAIL Inc. (GRAIL)
GRAIL, Inc., a biotechnology business, specializes in creating solutions for early cancer detection. The company creates Galleri, a screening test for asymptomatic people over the age of 50, and DAC, a diagnostic aid for cancer tests that speeds up diagnostic resolution for patients with a clinical suspicion of cancer. It also creates minimum residual disease and other post-diagnostic examinations. The company was established in 2015 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. GRAIL, Inc. is a former subsidiary of Illumina, Inc.
Mr. Chun Ding is the Founder and Managing Director of CRCM LLC, a Manager at CRCM LP, and a Managing Partner at ChinaRock Capital Management Ltd. He serves on the Board of Directors for Lit Live, Inc. and PolySign, Inc. Mr. Ding has previously worked as an Independent Director at Link Motion, Inc., a Non-Executive Director at China.com, Inc., a Managing Member at Farallon Capital Management LLC, a Managing Director at Chinarock Capital Management Ltd. (Investment Management), and a Principal at City Investing Co. Liquidating Trust. He earned an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Opinion: Grail is incredibly cheap and represents a 20X opportunity or more. If their multi-cancer early detection test is approved by the FDA or the National Health System in Great Britain, the Galleri test is likely to be the most valuable diagnostic test in the world. When spun off from Illumina, the Company raised $1.4 billion with investments from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and prominent VCs. Illumina repurchased Grail at an $8 billion valuation. The EU and FTC ultimately blocked the deal because Illumina would dominate the burgeoning and promising new biotech market for early cancer detection tests. Illumina was forced to divest nearly 85% of Grail and fund the Company for two years as part of the consent decree with the EU. Trading at more than a 50% discount to the cash on hand, this company has been the victim of a lot of bad press, lawsuits, and the greed of venture capitalists.
Name: Liberty 77 Capital L.P. / Liberty 77 Fund International L.P. / STM Partners LLC / Steven T Mnuchin
Position: 10% Owner
Transaction Date: 2024-10-07 Shares Bought: 183,576 Average Price Paid: $6.75 Cost: $1,238,322
Company: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF-B)
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation was created in 1986 and has its headquarters in Santa Monica, California. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is active in film, television, subscription, and location-based entertainment businesses in the United States, Canada, and worldwide. The corporation is organized into three business units: film, television production, and media networks. The Motion Picture branch 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, films, miniseries, and nonfiction programs worldwide. Media Networks sells 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 known as Liberty Strategic Capital, operates as a private equity firm. The corporation mostly invests in technological businesses. Liberty Strategic Capital serves clients throughout Washington. The firm was founded in 2021 and 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 company, exercises indirect control 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 chairman of the Investment Committee. Mr. Mnuchin was the 77th Secretary of the Treasury, serving from February 2017 until January 2021. Mr. Mnuchin managed the US Treasury’s efforts to maintain a robust economy, promote economic growth, and create job opportunities by setting circumstances for success both domestically and internationally. Mr. Mnuchin was also responsible for cybersecurity in the financial services industry and all Treasury divisions, including the IRS. Before being confirmed, he founded, chaired, and operated Dune Capital Management. He founded OneWest Bank Group LLC and served as Chairman and CEO until it was sold to CIT Group Inc. Secretary Mnuchin previously worked as a Partner and Chief Information Officer at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., where he oversaw the firm’s global information and technology strategy and operations. Secretary Mnuchin has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.
Opinion:
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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,
