Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, May 17, 2012 as ranked by dollar value.
On Today's Tables:
Another insider purchase at Hess (HES) has made this integrated energy firm's insider profile solidly bullish.
Director Ernst Von Metzsch increased his HES holdings by 19% with the 20,000 share purchase he filed yesterday. That optimism was previously reflected by Director John Mullin and Chairman John Hess, who both increased their holdings substantially with purchases in the past several weeks.
With HES now trading for less than book value, and the stock back down to a price that has represented long-term technical support in the past, this is another worthwhile stock to consider bottom feeding on.
Randal Kirk is at it again with another big buy of Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO). We stated our bullish case for Halozyme's shares in our April 30 column titled: "A Halo Comes Off". And the insider backing of this beaten-down biotech has only strengthened since then.
Mr. Kirk has irrefutably bought the weakness in HALO with a near $8 million purchase of the stock that increases his holdings by a substantial 36.9%. That's quite a statement of confidence that future FDA dealings are not likely to disappoint.
Also comforting is that long-time Halozyme Director Kenneth Kelley also stepped up with a purchase of nearly $150k worth of HALO back on May 14th. That was Mr. Kelley's first open-market purchase of HALO since he became an insider at the firm in 2004, and he was last seen flipping his options for a risk-free profit way back in 2007.
Other noteworthy insider trades on today's tables include:
Two insiders selling at NVR (NVR);
SPH Group still buying Steel Excel (SXCL.PK);
Several insiders buying the weakness at Basic Energy Services (BAS).
About InsiderInsights' Top Trades Tables
Company executives and directors are in the best position to assess the attractiveness of their firms' shares, and here is how many of them are voting their wallets!
Please note, however, that these are factual lists, not buy and sell recommendations. Dollar value is only one metric to assess the importance of an insider transaction, and further analysis of a stock's full insider history may not indicate a significant insider signal.
But at Insider Insights, we find significant insider signals just about every day using screens like these to determine where we should focus our subsequent fundamental and technical analysis. And while stocks don't (and shouldn't) move up or down based on insider activity alone, insiders tend to be good indicators of when real stock-moving events like earnings surprises, corporate actions, and new products may be in the offing.
So use these regular columns as the initial research tools they are meant to be, and come to InsiderInsights.com to analyze a company's or insider's full insider history. Also feel free to email with any questions on our proprietary insider data, and how it is best analyzed.
| #: | Filer Name | Insider Titles | Company Name | Ticker | Trans Type | Dollar Value | Shares Traded | Trans Date To | Ave Trans Price | Direct Holdings | Indirect Holdings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirk Randal J | DIR,BO | Halozyme Therapeutics | HALO | B | $7,951,403 | 1,071,498 | 5/17/12 | $7.50 | --- | 3,977,445 |
| 2 | Cascade Investment | BO | Republic Services | RSG | B | $5,348,811 | 209,346 | 5/15/12 | $25.55 | 69,065,832 | --- |
| 3 | Red Mountain Capital | BO | Str | STRI | B | $3,401,793 | 779,802 | 5/17/12 | $4.27 | --- | 4,942,011 |
| 4 | Cascade Investment | BO | Autonation | AN | B | $2,240,261 | 64,340 | 5/15/12 | $34.82 | 15,657,077 | --- |
| 5 | Webster Steven A | DIR | Basic Energy Services | BAS | B | $2,046,613 | 175,000 | 5/17/12 | $10.75 | 766,070 | --- |
| 6 | Von Metzsch Ernst H | DIR | Hess | HES | B | $916,760 | 20,000 | 5/16/12 | $45.79 | --- | 10,000 |
| 7 | SPH Group | BO | Steel Excel | SXCL.PK | B | $797,430 | 28,200 | 5/16/12 | $28.30 | 4,569,409 | --- |
| 8 | Brandon Joseph Patrick | VP | Alleghany | Y | B | $447,971 | 1,350 | 5/16/12 | $327.95 | 14,350 | --- |
| 9 | Parente Charles E | DIR | W P Carey & Co | WPC | B | $432,900 | 10,000 | 5/15/12 | $43.29 | 56,082 | --- |
| 10 | NGP Energy Technology II | BO | Gse Systems | GVP | AB | $370,324 | 148,261 | 5/16/12 | $2.50 | 2,616,525 | --- |
Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Transaction Type Codes
| #: | Filer Name | Insider Titles | Company Name | Ticker | Trans Type | Dollar Value | Shares Traded | Trans Date To | Ave Trans Price | Direct Holdings | Indirect Holdings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heilbronn Charles | DIR | Ulta Salon Cosmetics | ULTA | JS* | $652,532,992 | 8,050,000 | 5/15/12 | $81.06 | --- | 0 |
| 2 | Apollo Management Gp | BO | Charter Communications | CHTR | S | $12,542,661 | 191,323 | 5/17/12 | $63.99 | --- | 32,119,176 |
| 3 | Johnson Manuel H | DIR | NVR | NVR | S | $8,205,800 | 10,000 | 5/16/12 | $820.58 | 1,048 | --- |
| 4 | Singh Alok | DIR | Validus Holdings | VR | S | $7,801,441 | 237,909 | 5/15/12 | $32.79 | --- | 1,632,591 |
| 5 | Saville Paul C | CEO | NVR | NVR | S | $5,742,870 | 6,900 | 5/16/12 | $832.30 | 130,916 | --- |
| 6 | Weisser Alberto | CEO,DIR | Bunge | BG | AS | $5,554,180 | 90,000 | 5/15/12 | $62.21 | 75,090 | --- |
| 7 | Taylor Wayne Kent | CB,CEO,BO | Texas Roadhouse | TXRH | S | $3,424,705 | 188,793 | 5/16/12 | $18.14 | 6,612,591 | --- |
| 8 | Steele Milton | PR,PT | FMC | FMC | S | $2,204,888 | 21,150 | 5/15/12 | $104.25 | --- | 79,239 |
| 9 | Desai Hk | CB,DIR | Qlogic | QLGC | S | $1,517,250 | 100,000 | 5/16/12 | $15.00 | 220,344 | --- |
| 10 | Richardson Christopher C | O | Grand Canyon Education | LOPE | S | $1,414,320 | 78,489 | 5/17/12 | $18.00 | --- | 194,086 |
Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Transaction Type Codes
Disclosure: I am long HALO.
