Name: Arjun N Murti
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-12-20 Shares Bought: 2,500 Average Price Paid: $95.87 Cost: $239,675
Company: Conocophillips (COP)
ConocoPhillips is an independent exploration and production firm headquartered in Houston, Texas, with operations and activities in 13 countries. The comprehensive, low-cost-of-supply portfolio comprises resource-rich unconventional plays in North America, conventional assets in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, LNG initiatives, Canadian oil sands, and an inventory of global exploration prospects. ConocoPhillips is an independent exploration and production company based in Houston, Texas, with operations and activities throughout 13 countries. The company’s diverse, low-cost-of-supply portfolio includes resource-rich unconventional plays in North America, conventional assets in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, LNG projects, Canadian oil sands, and worldwide exploration opportunities.
Mr. Murti joined ConocoPhillips in January 2015. He is a Partner in Veriten LLC and a Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus. He formerly worked as a Partner at Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2014. Before becoming Partner, he served as Managing Director from 2003 to 2006 and Vice President from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Murti was a sell-side stock research analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he concentrated on the energy sector. He was co-director of equity research for the Americas from 2011 to 2014. Mr. Murti is a trustee at Kent Place School, as well as a member of the ClearPath and Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy advisory boards.
Opinion: There has been a clear desire to drill for oil in the artic where Conoco has a leading position. All the major oils have been crushed by the Trump trade so this is just another one with more insider buying than others.
Name: Herman E Bulls
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-12-23 Shares Bought: 10,000 Average Price Paid: $15.57 Cost: $155,680
Company: Fluence Energy Inc. (FLNC)
Fluence Energy, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was formed on June 21, 2021, and completed its initial public offering on November 1, 2021. The company operates through Fluence Energy, LLC, and its direct and indirect subsidiaries. Fluence Energy, LLC was formed on June 30, 2017, as a joint venture between Siemens Industry, Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Siemens AG, and AES Grid Stability, LLC, an indirect subsidiary. Together with Qatar Holding LLC, an affiliate of the Qatar Investment Authority, they are collectively called the “Continuing Equity Owners”.
Herman Bulls has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors since October 2021. He has been with JLL for over thirty years and is currently Vice Chairman, Americas and International Director. He is also the founder of JLL’s Public Institutions business unit, which specializes in providing comprehensive real estate solutions to nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, and governments at the federal, state, and local levels. Mr. Bulls co-founded Bulls Capital Partners, a multi-family finance company, and Bulls Advising Group, LLC, a management and real estate advising firm. He also served as President and CEO. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Opinion: I normally would not write up less than a $200k purchase but Director Bulls has been steadily accumulating Fluence Energy. Both fossil fuels and alternative energy have been poor homes for capital lately. Fluence is at the bottom of its range and worth a play.
Name: David J Schlanger
Position: Executive Chairman
Transaction Date: 2024-12-26 Shares Bought: 150,000 Average Price Paid: $14.68 Cost: $2,202,330
Company: Progyny Inc. (PGNY)
Name: Peter Anevski
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Transaction Date: 2024-12-23 Shares Bought: 209,500 Average Price Paid: $14.48 Cost: $3,034,084
Company: Progyny Inc. (PGNY)
Progyny is a major benefits management organization in the United States that specializes in fertility and family-building benefits. The organization believes in a world where everyone can pursue their ambitions of family and good health. The objective is to promote healthier, more supportive journeys through transforming fertility, family building, and women’s health advantages.. The company has accomplished this success by demonstrating that its purpose-built, data-driven, and innovative platform consistently provides greater clinical outcomes at a lower cost while driving exceptional client and member satisfaction.
David Schlanger began working for Progyny Inc. in January 2022. David has worked in healthcare and executive management for more than 25 years. Several significant milestones were accomplished by Progyny during his time as CEO, including five years in a row with industry-leading clinical outcomes, becoming the first fertility and family-building company to go public, being included in the esteemed S&P 400 index, and greatly expanding its clientele and covered lives. The CEO of WebMD before joining Progyny was David.
Peter Anevski began working for Progyny Inc. in January 2022. As the CEO of Progyny, Peter brings to the position more than 20 years of leadership and expertise in creating and growing operations at well-known healthcare organizations. Peter is an advocate for increasing access to family-building and fertility services so that everyone can fulfill their desire to become a parent. He has been collaborating with top companies to offer their staff members a fully managed, all-inclusive fertility and family-building benefit that produces excellent clinical results and provides outstanding care. Before joining Progyny, Peter served as WebMD’s CFO.
Opinion: Progyny has achieved remarkable revenue growth over the past five years. In 2019, the company reported $229.68 million in revenue, which surged to $1.09 billion by 2023, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 48%. However, on December 2nd, JPMorgan downgraded Progyny from Overweight to Neutral, lowering its price target from $22 to $17. In a research note, the analyst highlighted challenges related to utilization and attrition, which have created significant headwinds for the company’s growth narrative. The note also emphasized that near-term resolutions appear uncertain, leaving a lack of catalysts to reignite momentum and making long-term targets harder to achieve.
Despite these setbacks, the stock experienced a 15% rally, potentially driven by two insider purchases, which could serve as the spark needed to restore investor confidence.
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Name: Sheila Gujrathi
Position: Director
Transaction Date: 2024-12-23 Shares Bought: 130,000 Average Price Paid: $2.31 Cost: $300,573
Company: Ventyx Biosciences Inc. (VTYX)
Ventyx Biosciences Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is developing a pipeline of novel small-molecule therapy candidates to address several inflammatory conditions where there is a significant unmet need. To identify important new targets and develop novel medicines to target them, the company leverages the vast immunological experience of the staff.
Sheila Gujrathi began working for Ventyx Biosciences Inc. in 2021. Dr. Gujrathi co-founded Gossamer Bio, Inc. and served as its CEO for a while. She is a director at Janux Therapeutics, Inc. and ADARx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s chair of the board of directors. In the past, she was on the boards of directors at Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., Ambrx, Inc., and Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. She also chaired the board of directors at these companies. Before joining Gossamer Bio, Dr. Gujrathi was Receptos, Inc.’s Chief Medical Officer. Gujrathi earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering with the highest honors from Northwestern University, as well as an M.D. in the accelerated Honors Program in Medical Education. She finished her internal medicine internship and residency at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also received additional allergy/immunology fellowship training at Stanford and UCSF.
Opinion: Development biotechs are like quicksand. When you find an insider buying its, like finding a hard spot in the ground that you might be able to extract yourself from if you decide you want to get out. Knowing full well that they have an existential burn rate and the only way you will ever get your money out is that they sell out to a larger biotech or gets a blockbuster founding round that carries them to the end goal.
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This blog is solely for educational purposes and the author’s own amusement. IT IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. 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.
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 as soon as practically possible. 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. When I have time, over the weekend, I’ll add some preliminary analysis to the Opinion at the end. Sometimes I won’t update this for a couple of weeks or more. A good way to use this blog is as I do, it’s a reference point and filing cabinet for various stocks with notable insider buying. It’s one of many tools I use. I regularly live on Chat GPT and Microsoft Copilot now. I find the footnotes research very helpful in eliminating errors from AI hallucinations.
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,
