Company executives may not know much about the stock market. But
they know plenty about their own business. That's why many
investors track their every move. When these insiders notify the
Securities and Exchange Commission that they have just bought
company stock, investors sit up and take notice, because future
results may be brightening. But few investors pay heed to sales of
stock by these insiders. That's because there's usually a lot more
selling than buying, as these insiders often are simply taking
profits from stock option grants.
Well, just last week, we saw more insider purchases than insider
sales, according to InsiderInsights.com. The net positive reading
hasn't been seen in some time. In fact, the last time insiders
posted such a bullish bet on stocks was in April 2009 - just a
month after the powerful rally began. Many of the recent buying
transactions appear to be coming from companies that have seen
their shares sharply pushed off their highs, even as the
fundamental outlook for the company is unchanged.
But the folks at InsiderInsights bring a caveat: executives at
companies are often a bit naive when anticipating how their stock
will fare in the near future. Their insider buying activities tend
to pay off, but only over the medium or long-term. In fact, history
has shown that an increasing number of insiders can step in to buy
their shares as a market falls further and further. So for many
investors, it pays to brush up on the companies that seeing heavy
insider buying, but hold off jumping in until you think the market
has stabilized.
Action to Take -->
There are a few other items to monitor. First off, you should be
heartened when several executives at a firm do some buying. Look
for buying clusters by the chief executive officer, the chief
financial officer and any board members. In addition, you may want
to look at their track record. Various websites will tell you when
insiders bought and sold in the past. And you can go back and see
how those trades panned out. You want to mimic the insiders who
have a history of buying their own stock closer to lows and selling
closer to highs.
Not surprisingly, executives of oil and gas firms that are squarely
focused on land-based drilling and oil and gas transport have been
active buyers of their stock lately. That's because they've been
tarnished with the same brush as their offshore-focused peers.
Names in the space include
PetroQuest Energy (
PQ
)
, which just saw more than $10 million in insider buying and
Crosstex Energy (Nasdaq: XTEX)
, where insiders recently spent $13 million on their company's
stock.
Insiders will occasionally buy their own stock even when it's
trading well above the lows, as they see a future that is even
brighter than analysts expect. Insiders picked up more than $6
million in stock at
American Superconductor (Nasdaq: AMSC)
at around $30 a share, even though shares had been closer to $25 a
few weeks earlier. In a similar vein, four different insiders
bought a collective $8 million in stock at
Loral (Nasdaq: LORL)
, a satellite services provider, even as shares sit at twice the
52-week low.
-- David Sterman
Staff Writer
StreetAuthority
Disclosure: David Sterman does not own shares of any security
mentioned in this article.