Cluster of Insider Buying at Clinical-Stage Vaccine Company, Massive Insider Selling at Analog Chip Giant, Plus Other Insider Trading

Cluster of Insider Buying at Clinical-Stage Vaccine Company

Let’s have a look at a cluster of insider buying at low-priced Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), the ideal combination sought by many investors. To start with, John J. Trizzino, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations, purchased 3,401 shares on Tuesday at $1.12 apiece, lifting his overall holding to 88,965 shares. John A. Herrmann III, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, snapped up 4,960 shares on the same day for $1.12 each. Mr. Herrmann owns a total of 7,072 shares after the Tuesday purchase. Last but not least, Barclay A. “Buck” Phillips, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, bought 1,633 shares on Tuesday, a purchase that boosted his ownership to 11,612 shares.

The clinical-stage vaccine company has seen the value of its shares plunge by 73% in the past year, mainly owing to a massive drop in mid-September when the company announced disappointing results from a late-stage clinical trial for a respiratory virus vaccine known as RSV-F. Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX)’s lead candidate was way ahead of possible competitors from GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK) and AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN), but the disappointing results delayed the company’s timeline. Nonetheless, the clinical-stage biotech recently announced the launch of a new phase II clinical trial of the product, with the results anticipated to be revealed by the third quarter of this year. The cluster of insider buying shows insiders’ confidence in the future prospects of its lead product candidate. Small-cap specialist Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, added a 900,000-share stake in Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) to its portfolio during the third quarter.

Massive Cluster of Insider Selling at Analog Chip Giant After Earnings Release

We can now focus our attention on the dark side of the insider trading space – insider selling. Numerous insiders at Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) offloaded shares at the beginning of the week, so let’s have a quick look at several notable sales. To begin with, President and CEO Richard K. Templeton sold 75,725 shares on Tuesday at prices varying from $75.32 to $76.02 per share, trimming his direct ownership stake to 946,831 shares. Mr. Templeton had also offloaded a couple hundred thousand shares through freshly-exercised stock options before that. Kevin J. Ritchie, Senior Vice President of Technology and Manufacturing Group, discarded 66,667 shares on the same day at prices that fell between $75.40 and $77.51 per share, a sale that trimmed his stake to 146,705 shares. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Crutcher sold 32,450 shares on Tuesday at an average price of $75.57 per share. Mr. Crutcher currently owns an aggregate of 243,834 shares.

The huge volume of insider selling comes after the producer of semiconductors to electronics designers and manufacturers released better-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter. Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN)’s revenue rose by 7.1% year-over-year to $3.41 billion, reflecting strong demand for chips in automotive applications and continued improvement in demand in the industrial chip market. Meanwhile, the chipmaker’s net income climbed to $1.05 billion from $836 million recorded for the fourth quarter of 2015. Considering that the analog chip giant’s shares are trading a few dollars off their 52-week high of $79.47, the spike in insider selling does not come as a surprise. The stock has gained 48% in the past 12 months. Ray Carroll’s Breton Hill Capital added a 3,403-share position in Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) to its pool of holdings during the December quarter.

The final page of this insider trading article discusses the fresh insider selling at two other well-known companies.