Analysts follow the buying trends of company insiders (like upper management and members of the board) because they know their companies better than any other investors – if insiders at a company are personally buying their company’s stock, it’s a big vote of confidence.
We ran a screen on stocks of the healthcare sector that are currently rallying above their 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages. We screened these stocks for those with the greatest net buying from insiders over the last six months.
Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the top six stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.
We also created a price-weighted index of the stocks mentioned below and monitored the performance of the list relative to the S&P 500 index over the last month. To access a complete analysis of this list's recent performance, click here.
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Do you think these company insiders are calling it right on their companies? Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis.
List sorted by net insider purchases as a percent of share float.
1. Theravance Inc. (THRX): Engages in the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule medicines for various therapeutic areas, including respiratory disease, bacterial infections and central nervous system (CNS)/pain. Market cap of $1.85B. The stock is currently trading at 3.35% above its 20-Day SMA, 8.93% above its 50-Day SMA, and 0.68% above its 200-Day SMA. Net insider shares purchased over the last six months at 5.19M, which is 11.84% of the company's 43.83M share float. The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 12.12% (equivalent to 17.91 days of average volume). It has been a rough couple of days for the stock, losing 5.61% over the last week.
2. Opko Health, Inc. (OPK): Engages in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel and proprietary technologies primarily in the United States, Chile and Mexico. Market cap of $1.47B. The stock is currently trading at 2.39% above its 20-Day SMA, 13.24% above its 50-Day SMA, and 30.81% above its 200-Day SMA. Net insider shares purchased over the last six months at 6.85M, which is 5.18% of the company's 132.33M share float. The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 10.02% (equivalent to 8.5 days of average volume). The stock has gained 71.14% over the last year.
3. Genomic Health Inc. (GHDX): Focuses on the development and global commercialization of genomic-based clinical laboratory services that analyze the underlying biology of cancer allowing physicians and patients to make individualized treatment decisions. Market cap of $796.82M. The stock is currently trading at 18.21% above its 20-Day SMA, 23.97% above its 50-Day SMA, and 11.92% above its 200-Day SMA. Net insider shares purchased over the last six months at 554.75K, which is 2.07% of the company's 26.77M share float. The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 8.19% (equivalent to 14.39 days of average volume). The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 7.61% over the last week.
4. Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ANTH): Focuses on developing and commercializing therapeutics to treat diseases associated with inflammation, including cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. Market cap of $271.19M. The stock is currently trading at 7.56% above its 20-Day SMA, 26.69% above its 50-Day SMA, and 10.20% above its 200-Day SMA. Net insider shares purchased over the last six months at 279.79K, which is 1.07% of the company's 26.12M share float. The stock has had a good month, gaining 13.68%.
*Insider data sourced from Yahoo! Finance, all other data sourced from Finviz.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
