Board Members at Lawson Products Inc. (LAWS) and Largest U.S. Title Insurance Underwriter Discard Sizeable Blocks of Shares, Plus Noteworthy Insider Buying

Non-Executive Chairman of Industrial Distributor of Maintenance and Repair Products Offloads Shares

One of the most well-informed insiders at Lawson Products Inc. (NASDAQ:LAWS) offloaded a sizeable block of shares last week. Ronald B. Port, Non-Executive Chairman of Lawson Products since April 2007 and Board member since 1984, discarded 300,000 shares on Wednesday at a price tag of $23.45 per share, all of which were held in trusts. Mr. Port, the son of Lawson’s founder Sidney L. Port, currently owns an indirect ownership stake of 831,041 shares, as well as a direct ownership stake of 132,585 shares.

In mid-November, the industrial distributor of maintenance and repair products completed the acquisition of Vancouver-based distribution company Mattic Industries Limited. Mattic industries operates as a distributor of rivets, fasteners and other industrial components throughout Western Canada. Lawson Products Inc. (NASDAQ:LAWS)’s net sales totaled $70.2 million for both the third quarter of 2016 and 2015. Higher sales generated from the addition of more sales representatives were offset by a general slowdown in the Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) distribution marketplace, and weaker demand from customers operating in the oil and gas industry. The shares of Lawson Products are up 3% year-to-date. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC owned 41,216 shares of Lawson Products Inc. (NASDAQ:LAWS) at the end of the third quarter.

Board Member at Largest U.S. Title Insurance Underwriter Discards Shares

A member of FNF Group of Fidelity National Financial Inc. (NYSE:FNF)’s boardroom also unloaded a great deal of shares last week. Frank P. Willey, who served as the Vice Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors until February 2016, liquidated 200,800 shares on Thursday, 40,077 shares on Tuesday, and 23,662 shares on Monday at prices varying from $32.00 to $33.36 per share. After this series of transactions, Mr. Willey currently owns an aggregate of 959,892 shares.

The largest title insurance underwriter in the United States has seen the value of its shares plunge by 8% since the beginning of the year. FNF Group of Fidelity National Financial Inc. (NYSE:FNF) also represents the majority owner of Black Knight Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:BKFS), a fast-growing provider of cloud-based tech software to the nation’s largest mortgage services. Bulls have been arguing that FNF deserves a much higher valuation because of its majority stake in Black Knight, with the company’s management planning to make a decision on whether to spin-off its remaining stake in Black Knight as soon as late 2017. There were 19 hedge funds from our system with stakes in FNF at the end of September, down from 20 funds recorded at the end of June. Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital added a 10.77 million-share stake in FNF Group of Fidelity National Financial Inc. (NYSE:FNF) to its portfolio during the third quarter.

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