Executives Are Selling Shares of These 3 Companies; Costco Among Them

Let’s refocus our discussion on the insider selling activity witnessed at Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS). Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas B. Nusz offered 75,000 shares as a bona-fide gift on Tuesday and sold 200,000 shares on Thursday at a weighted average sale price of $9.30. After the recent transactions, the CEO owns 1.71 million shares. The independent exploration and production company focuses on the acquisition and development of oil and natural gas resources in the Williston Basin. The low crude oil price environment has forced the company to cut its planned 2015 capital expenditures and focus on its drilling activities in the areas that are most economic. Oasis Petroleum’s total revenues for the nine months that ended September 30 totaled $607.7 million, down by 44% year-on-year. The company’s top-line decreased as a result of lower realized oil and natural gas sales prices, which decreased by 50% and 72% on average, respectively, during the nine-month period of 2015 as compared to the same period of 2014. At the same time, the increased production volumes partially offset the negative impact of low oil and natural gas prices. A total of 26 hedge funds from our database were invested in the company at the end of the third quarter, amassing 34.50% of the company’s outstanding shares. Let’s not forget to mention that the stock is 48% in the red year-to-date. John H. Scully’s SPO Advisory Corp cut its position in Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS) by 1% during the third quarter to 20.22 million shares.

Last but not least, Mohawk Industries Inc. (NYSE:MHK) also saw one of its top executives sell shares last week. President and Chief Operating Officer W. Christopher Wellborn reported selling an 8,707-share block on Wednesday at $195 apiece, trimming his overall holding to 192,127 shares. The shares of the flooring manufacturer are up nearly 22% in 2015 and are trading at a trailing P/E ratio of 24.66, which is slightly above the ratio for the S&P 500 Index. The company reported net sales of $6.07 billion for the nine-month period that ended October 3, which denotes an increase of $221.6 million or 3.8% year-over-year. Its net earnings for the same nine-month period totaled $423.7 million, as compared with $385.1 million reported for the same period a year ago. This increase was mainly achieved as a result of increased sales volumes, enhanced operations productivity, lower input costs, lower taxes and interest expenses. The number of smart money investors with long positions in the company climbed to 64 from 59 during the third quarter, whereas the value of these positions shrank to $2.87 billion from $3.89 billion quarter-on-quarter. Billionaire Dan Loeb of Third Point reported owning 2.15 million shares in Mohawk Industries Inc. (NYSE:MHK) via the fund’s latest 13F filing.

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