Cluster of Insider Selling at Overseas Seller of Marlboro Cigarettes, Plus Other Eye-Catching Insider Buying and Selling

Newly-Appointed CEO of Insurance Holding Company Buys New Stake

The man in charge of Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) initiated a stake in the company at the beginning of the week. Dino E. Robusto, who became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cna Financial in December last year, bought a 12,000-share stake on Tuesday at prices between $41.64 and $41.93 per share. Although the purchase might have been made to meet the company’s stock ownership guidelines, it still represents a positive sign.

The insurance holding company, which runs property and casualty and remaining life and group insurance operations, has seen the value of its shares advance by 49% in the past year. Diversified holding company Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) owned roughly 90% of Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA)’s outstanding common stock at year-end. The commercial property and casualty insurance firm recently reported net income of $859 million for full-year 2016, up from $479 million reported for the prior year. More importantly, the company announced a regular dividend of $0.25 per share, as well as another $2-per-share special dividend. As a result, Cna Financial returned nearly all earnings in dividends. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC owned 757,700 shares of Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) at the end of December.

New CEO of Surgical Implant Company Purchases Shares

Our insider trading database shows the insider buying activity at RTI Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ:RTIX) had been non-existent since December 2013 until last week. Camille Farhat, who has been named Chief Executive Officer effective mid-March, snapped up 83,000 shares on Friday at a price tag of $3.44 each, boosting his ownership to 1.08 million shares. Mr. Farhat’s ownership stake includes 1 million shares of restricted stock.

The shares of the surgical implant company providing surgeons with safe biologic, metal and synthetic implants are 6% in the green year-to-date. RTI Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ:RTIX)’s total revenues for the nine months that ended September decreased by $4.7 million year-over-year to $201.5 million, reflecting lower commercial revenue. It worth mentioning though that a significant amount of the company’s revenue is derived from large global commercial stocking distributors, whose timing of orders can vary from quarter to quarter. These ordering patterns lead to significant unit volume variations. There were 11 hedge funds followed by our team invested in the surgical implant company at the end of December, amassing 16% of the company’s outstanding shares. Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, had around 777,000 shares of RTI Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ:RTIX) in its portfolio at year-end.

Let’s head to the final page of the article, where we discuss fresh insider selling observed at two giant corporations.