CEO-CFO Duo at U.S. Building Supplier Sell Shares After Agreeing to be Acquired by Australia’s Boral, Plus Other Insider Trading Activity Amid Slowing Insider Buying

The CEO-CFO Duo at U.S. Building Supplier Sell Shares After Agreeing to be Acquired

The most influential and well-informed executives – the CEO-CFO duo – at Headwaters Inc. (NYSE:HW) offloaded a great deal of shares this week. To start with, Chairman and CEO Kirk A. Benson sold 516,345 shares on Thursday at a price of $23.56 per share, cutting his overall holding to 874,993 shares. Chief Financial Officer Donald P. Newman discarded 85,413 shares on the same day at $23.66 apiece. After the recent sale, Mr. Newman currently owns a mere 41,000 shares.

In late November, Headwaters Inc. (NYSE:HW), one of the largest U.S. sellers of concrete ingredient fly ash, agreed to be acquired by Australia’s biggest supplier of building materials Boral Ltd. for $1.86 billion in cash. The combined entity will become the largest U.S. supplier of fly ash, a key ingredient in concrete, should the deal go through. This move comes amid strong optimism that President-elect Donald Trump will keep his promise of boosting infrastructure spending. The shareholders of building supplier Headwaters are set to receive $24.25 per share in cash at closing. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC was the owner of 1.13 million shares of Headwaters Inc. (NYSE:HW) at the end of the September quarter.

Insider at High-Flying On Assignment Offloads Shares

One insider at On Assignment Inc. (NYSE:ASGN) discarded a sizeable block of shares earlier this week. Jeffrey E. Veatch, an observer of the company’s Board of Directors, sold 100,000 shares on Thursday at prices varying from $45.00 to $45.13 per share. After the recent sale, Mr. Veatch currently holds an ownership stake of 847,390 shares.

The insider selling discussed above comes shortly after the shares of the provider of highly-skilled, hard-to-find professionals in the technology, life sciences, and creative sectors jumped by around 25% in the past month. In mid-August, analysts at Deutsche Bank initiated coverage on On Assignment Inc. (NYSE:ASGN) with a ‘Buy’ rating and a price target of $44, saying that “the scarcity of IT talent also provides some cushion to growth even in an underwhelming GDP environment.” The analysts attributed the rating to the company’s “attractive end markets, client mix, durable buyback, reasonable expectations, and attractive valuation” and they turned out to be quite accurate given that the company’s share price reached the $44-price target several days ago. There were 18 hedge fund vehicles from our system with stakes in the company at the end of September, amassing nearly 8% of its outstanding common stock. Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management added a 1.18-million-share position in On Assignment Inc. (NYSE:ASGN) to its pool of holdings during the third quarter.

The final page of this article will discuss insider selling at two other companies.