Enormous Cluster of Insider Selling at Brokerage and Investment Banking Firm Stifel (SF), Plus Other Noteworthy Insider Transactions

15 Insiders at Brokerage and Investment Banking Firm Offload Shares

Let’s have a brief look at several sales observed at Stifel Financial Corp (NYSE:SF), where 15 different insiders offloaded shares this week. To begin with, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Ronald J. Kruszewski discarded 100,000 shares on Tuesday at $50.20 apiece and offered 8,675 shares as a gift on the same day, cutting his direct ownership stake to 908,862 shares. Co-President and Chief Financial Officer James M. Zemlyak liquidated 15,000 units of common stock on the same day for $50.20 each, as well as offered 550 units as a gift. After the recent transactions, Mr. Zemlyak currently owns an aggregate of 724,183 shares. Ben A. Plotkin, Vice-Chairman of the company’s Board, sold 15,000 shares on Tuesday at a price of $50.20 per share, a sale that cut his ownership to 123,309 shares.

The massive cluster of insider selling at the full service brokerage and investment banking firm, a small portion of which was discussed above, comes shortly after the firm’s shares have surged by 31% in the past month. Stifel Financial Corp (NYSE:SF)’s earnings report for the September quarter propelled the company’s share price to a year-to-date return of 19%. Stifel, which engages in retail brokerage, securities trading, investment banking, investment advisory, and related financial services, reported net income of $16.3 million on net revenues of $642 million for the three-month period ended September 30, compared to net income of $17.2 million on net revenues of $591.6 million for the same quarter of the previous year. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors owns around 192,000 shares of Stifel Financial Corp (NYSE:SF) as of September 30.

Chairman of Largest Pure-Play Children’s Specialty Apparel Retailer Sells Shares

A well-informed insider at Childrens Place Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) also discarded a sizable block of shares this week. Norman S. Matthews, Chairman of the Board at Childrens Place, sold 40,995 shares on Monday at prices that fell between $99.60 and $101.00 per share. After the recent sale, Mr. Matthews currently owns a stake of 49,706 shares.

The shares of the largest pure-play children’s specialty apparel retailer in North American have skyrocketed by 90% since the beginning of the year, so the insider sale mentioned above should not come as a surprise to the investment community. Childrens Place Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) recorded net sales of $473.8 million for the third quarter, up by 3.9% year-over-year. The company’s comparable retail sales jumped by 4.6% year-on-year in the third quarter. Childrens Place has closed 120 stores as part of a fleet optimization initiative to improve store productivity, but the company is yet to reach its goal of 200 closed stores by the end of its fiscal year 2017. Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, was the owner of 1.01 million shares of Childrens Place Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) at the end of the third quarter.

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