Fresh Insider Buying at Struggling ETF Specialist and Two Other Companies, Plus Noteworthy Insider Sales

COO of Oil and Gas Company Piles Up Shares

One member of Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE:PHX)’s executive team also piled up some shares of company stock this week. Paul F. Blanchard Jr., Chief Operating Officer since January 2009 and Senior Vice President since March 2010, snapped up 23,316 class A shares on Tuesday through multiple transactions at an average price of $16.01 per share. After the recent set of transactions, Mr. Blanchard Jr. owns 218,400 class A shares of Panhandle, which include restricted shares with vesting based on performance criteria.

Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE:PHX) engages in the exploration for and production of natural gas and oil, with its oil and gas holdings, including its mineral acreage and its interests in producing wells, being centered in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The company recorded a net loss of $11.02 million for the nine months that ended June 30, as compared to net income of $10.21 million posted for the same period of the prior year. Meanwhile, Panhandle’s total revenues for the nine-month period that ended June 30 were $28.91 million, down massively from $57.43 million posted a year ago. Even so, the company’s cash flow from operations fully funded costs associated with drilling and equipping wells during these nine months. The shares of the oil and gas company are down 1% thus far in 2016. Douglas T. Granat’s Trigran Investments was the owner of 1.59 million shares of Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE:PHX) at the end of June.

Freshly-Appointed Board Member of Government Services Giant Purchases Shares

A member of Leidos Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LDOS)’s boardroom also completed a purchase of company stock earlier this week. Surya N. Mohapatra, appointed to serve on the 12-member Leidos board in mid-August, bought 3,575 shares on Tuesday at prices that fell in the range of $41.29 and $41.89 per share, lifting his overall holding to 6,143 shares.

In mid-August, the applied technology company that provides services and solutions to national security, health and infrastructure markets announced the completion of the previously-announced combination of Leidos with Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT)’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business via a Reverse Morris Trust transaction, which generally combines a tax-free spin-off with a pre-arranged merger. As federal agencies are putting pricing pressures on government service providers and simultaneously putting pressures on their margins, the freshly-created multi-billion-dollar government services giant enables Leidos to boost market share, enhance efficiencies and achieve cost synergies to tackle margin pressures. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC owned nearly 349,000 shares of Leidos Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) on June 30.

The final page of this article will focus on fresh insider selling registered at two other companies.