AmREIT Director & COO are Bullish

AmREIT Director Brent Longnecker: M Brent Longnecker, Director at AmREIT Inc (NYSE:AMRE)’s  board, acquired 1,000 shares of common stock from the company earlier this week.  He paid an average price of $16.74 per share, but the stock price is now down to $16.66. He now owns 70,426 shares, valued at $1,173,297.

Over the last three months, Longnecker has been increasing his participation at the firm, having acquired 3,000 shares. However, price swings have not favored him: since his first purchase in mid-August, the stock has lost 9% of its price.

C Chad Braun, COO, CFO, Secretary and Treasurer at the company also acquired stock in the last couple of months. He added 2,000 shares to his portfolio on Aug. 28^th, and now owns a total of 143,201 shares, more than double Longnecker’s holdings. In addition, the downside that he has had to absorb since the purchase is considerably lower than Longnecker’s, since Braun paid $16.89 per share on his last buy.

In all, it seems like both insiders wanted to benefit from the dividend payable on Sept. 30^th. However, Longnecker’s last acquisition cannot be fully understood at the light of the current news available. Maybe, he is just anticipating the quarterly results to be announced a month from now.

One way or another, this last purchase certainly (or at least) looks interesting: valued substantially below its peers, at 22.9 times its earnings and 5.8 times its sales, AmREIT seems cheap. Especially given its 3.1% return on assets (vs. a 2.2% industry average) and its 25.3% net margin (vs. a 18.3% industry mean). In addition, the company yields about 4.77% of the current stock price in the form of dividends.

Two weeks ago, the company announced the acquisition of the Woodlake Square Shopping Center, a 160,761 square-foot mall in Houston, Texas, anchored by Randalls and Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG).

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned

Recommended Reading:

A Verastem Board Member Bought in at $11.53

Oiltanking Partners Insider is Buying at $55 a Share

How One Anacor Pharmaceuticals Insider is Making Bank