Pep Boys: Insiders Go on a Buying Spree

Pep Boys' (PBY) officers and directors must think their shares represent a bargain, as they definitely put their money where their mouth was, by buying their stock at will between the dates of December 11-12

Insiders take the plunge: Five separate insiders purchased PBY shares within two trading days, plunking down more than $280,000. On 12/12, Joe Cirelli, an Officer, purchased 3000 shares at $3.42, upping his position by about 10% to 36,055 shares. The same day, Nick White, an Outside Director increased his ownership by nearly 20%, as he bought a 10,000 share block at $3.41 raising his total to 51,768 shares. On 12/11, PBY's CEO, Michael Odell, increased his stake by 41% to 96,991 by nabbing 28,500 shares at $3.50. CFO Ray Arthur increased his position by more than 50% by purchasing 28,600 shares at $3.50, building his share total to 53,600. Scott Webb, an Officer, rounded out the shopping spree by grabbing 9,950 shares at the $3.60 level. He now owns a 61,000 share position.

The importance of insider buying: When an insider puts up his own money to buy shares in his own company, that is significant, because he has more intimate knowledge of his company's potential than any one else. It is certainly prudent to replicate their actions, as their knowledge of their company, is "leaps and bounds" above analysts, the media, fund managers or any other "so called" experts.

Bottom line: It is certainly encouraging to see insider buying occurring in PBY shares. It goes along way in validating my faith, the company's turnaround efforts will eventually bear fruit. In the meantime, an 8.4% dividend yield makes playing the waiting game,much more palatable.

Disclosure: Long PBY.

Comments

[Roger Knights:]

I wonder if there might be a buy-out offer in the pipeline. (That's probably occurred to you as well.) It would have to be at least book value, which is about $9 or so (I think).

The chart looks good--a triple bottom.

PBY call options are fairly cheap compared to options on other stocks.

2008 Dec 16 09:23 AM

[Roger Knights:]

Typos: "On 12/12, Joe Cirelli, an Officer, purchased 3000 shares at $3.42, upping his position by about 10% to 6,055 shares."

That should be 100%, right?

"mean time"--change to "meantime"

2008 Dec 16 12:15 PM

[Mark Krieger:]

it is a typo.. Cirelli now owns 36055 shares, not 6055 shares, so he did add about 10% to his holdings. You are right about "mean time"-I'm surprised the SA editor missed my punctuation error..thanks for pointing it out. mark


On Dec 16 12:15 PM Roger Knights wrote:

> Typos: "On 12/12, Joe Cirelli, an Officer, purchased 3000 shares
> at $3.42, upping his position by about 10% to 6,055 shares."
>
> That should be 100%, right?
>
> "mean time"--change to "meantime"

2008 Dec 16 12:54 PM

[10Q Detective:]

Yes, there is no significant debt maturating until October 2013, but the balance sheet is highly levered, with total debt approaching 85 percent of stockholder equity.
blogs.bnet.com/secdocu...

Jan 17 01:56 AM