CEO of Struggling U.S. Footwear Maker Buys Half a Million Shares, Board Member at Home Depot Inc. (HD) Buys Shares, Plus Other Insider Trading Activity

Mini-Cluster of Insider Selling at Expanding Hospitality Company

Several executives at Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) trimmed their holdings this week. To start with, H. Charles Floyd, Executive Vice President and Global President of Operations, offloaded 42,000 Class A shares on Monday at prices varying from $53.00 to $53.82 per share. Mr. Floyd currently owns an aggregate of 106,103 shares following the recent sale. Pete Sears, Executive Vice President and Group President of Americas, liquidated 6,620 Class A shares on the same day at prices that fell between $52.78 and $53.78 per share, cutting his ownership stake to 8,292 shares.

The global hospitality company’s worldwide hotel portfolio consisted of 639 hotels at the end of September, totaling 166,731 rooms. The shares of Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) have recovered since the company faced a breach of payment cards that affected 250 hotels in around 50 countries from the end of 2015 through the beginning of this year, with the stock being up 9% year-to-date. The hospitality company has been implementing expansion efforts as of late despite facing serious competition from digital upstarts, with 60 hotels due to open this year. The company opened 11 hotels during the third quarter. John Khoury’s Long Pond Capital was the owner of 1.86 million shares of Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) at the end of September.

Executive at High-Flying Independent Natural Gas and Oil Company Unloads Shares

One member of Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE:RICE)’s executive team discarded a high number of shares this week. James W. Rogers, Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting and Administrative Officer, and Treasurer, sold 85,544 shares on Monday and 28,979 shares on Tuesday at prices ranging from $25.00 to $25.79 per share. After the recent sales, Mr. Rogers currently owns 60,802 shares of Rice Energy.

The independent natural gas and oil company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of natural gas, oil and NGL properties in the Appalachian Basin has seen the value of its shares skyrocket by 123% since the beginning of the year. Interestingly enough, the company’s shares are up nearly 90% since Insider Monkey covered some noteworthy insider buying at Rice Energy in early December 2015. Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE:RICE)’s natural gas, oil and NGL sales for the third quarter increased to $162.70 million from $130.15 million recorded a year ago, predominantly reflecting an increase in production in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the same quarter of 2015. There were 43 hedge funds tracked by our team invested in the independent natural gas and oil company at the end of the third quarter, amassing 23% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global had 14.97 million shares of Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE:RICE) in its portfolio on September 30.

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