An Insider Sells Major Stake of General Growth Properties While Directors at Genomic Health and US Steel Buy Stock

Welcome to our daily roundup of top insider trades. Here's a look at the most significant inside sales and purchases filed with the SEC on Tuesday, May 14, 2013.

Purchases: Felix Baker, a Director of molecular diagnostics company Genomic Health ( GHDX ), bought 240,426 shares of company stock for $8,257,066. The company's primary focus is the development and commercialization of genomic laboratory services that can analyze the biology of cancer, which can allow doctors and patients to make individualized treatment decisions. On May 2, the company had its Q1 2012 earnings conference call, reporting a net loss of $0.03, down from a net gain of $0.03 for Q1 2012, but with revenue increasing 8% to $63.1 million. It was enough for the stock's price to jump from $30.39 on May 2 to $33.47 the next day. Continuing the upward trend, it was announced on May 7 that the company will sell its Oncotype DX test for use with prostate cancer patients; the test was originally introduced in 2004 for breast cancer patients and can predict the likelihood that chemotherapy will benefit a patient, as well as the chances of recurrence. The stock's value has increased 22.52% since this time last month, 30.43% year-to-date, and 13.41% since this time last year.

James Crane, a Director of Western Gas Partners, LP ( WES ), bought 25,000 shares of company stock for $1.529 million. Western Gas is a master limited partnership that was organized by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. ( APC ) to own, operate, acquire, and develop midstream energy assets in Texas and the Rocky Mountains. Crane is also the owner and Chairman of the MLB team the Houston Astros. Today, Western Gas announced a public offering of 6.1 million common shares at $61.18 per share; it is expected to close on May 17, with the company intending to use proceeds to fund capital expenditures and repay part of its outstanding borrowings. At $61, the company's stock price is up 28.07% YTD and 34.99% since this time last year.

Murry Gerber, a Director of United States Steel Corporation ( X ), bought 72,075 shares of company stock for $1,368,704. US Steel produces and sells steel mill products to businesses in North America and Europe; it has an annual raw steel production capability of 31.7 million net tons. Gerber is also a Director of BlackRock, Inc. ( BLK ) and Halliburton Company (HAL). At a shareholder meeting on May 2, US Steel Chairman and CEO John Suma announced plans to expand steelmaking in Lorain, Ohio, as well as a joint venture with neighboring Republic Steel to supply raw metal. The plan would augment the company seamless hot mill to increase the diameter of the pipes it produces for gas and oil drilling, from 4.875 inches to just over 6 inches. Since the announcement shares jumped from around $17 to as high as $19.40. Now trading at $18.11, the company's stock price has decreased 23.77% YTD and 24.06% since this time last year.

Sales: At the Chicago-based real estate investment trust General Growth Properties (GGP), which is the second largest US mall owner, Director John Schreiber sold 23,431,804 shares of company stock for $536,588,288. The company primarily owns and operates regional malls, with 143 properties in 42 states, including the world's largest open-air mall, the Ala Moana Center, in Honolulu, Hawai'i. This comes after the May 7 announcement that Blackstone Group LP (BX) was selling its 23.4 million share stake in the company after helping it emerge from bankruptcy in 2010. The company's stock price, currently $22.57, is up 44.96% YTD and up 85.4% since this time last year.

Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Trans Type Codes

An important note from Jonathan Moreland, founder of Insider Insights :

In a victory for common sense, it has been proven profitable -- by both academic studies and (more importantly) the experience of your fellow professional investors -- to monitor the trading behavior of company executives, directors, and large shareholders in the stocks of firms of which they're registered as "insiders."

Please note, however, that the lists above are strictly factual; they are not buy and sell recommendations. Dollar value is only one metric to assess the importance of an insider transaction, and, frankly, often not even the most important metric that determines if an insider transaction is significant.

At InsiderInsights.com, we find new investment ideas just about every day using these and more intricate insider screens to determine where we should focus our subsequent fundamental and technical analysis. And while stocks don't (or 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.

Jonathan Moreland is also the author of " Profit From Legal Insider Trading."

Follow me on Twitter: @JoshWolonick and @Minyanville

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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