Heavy Insider Selling at Well-Known Direct Selling Company, Plus Other Notable Insider Transactions

Investors have been keeping track of insider trading metrics for decades. After all, corporate insiders tend to have a natural edge over retail investors or analysts, because the former camp of individuals usually has a better understanding of their businesses and industries than anyone else. Hence, retail investors are always a step behind those “in the know” regardless of how much research you do or how much financial news you read.

If only retail investors could just attend a company’s board meeting, they could find out what is really going on behind the scenes. Insider buying metrics have been used as a sign of stock price appreciation for years. On the contrary, insider selling is usually interpreted as a bearish sign. Indeed, insider buying and selling activity should not be used as the sole indicator when making the decision of buying or selling a company’s stock. Nonetheless, legitimate insider trading could represent a good starting point to further investigate a company’s fundamentals. With that in mind, let’s proceed to the discussion of a set of noteworthy insider transactions reported with the SEC on Friday.

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President and CIO of Transitioning REIT Pile Up Shares

An informed and supposedly well-informed executive at Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) bought a relatively sizable block of shares this past week. Mark O. Decker Jr., President and CIO, snapped up 9,000 shares on Friday at $6.15 each. Following the recent transaction, Mr. Decker currently owns 107,138 shares.

The equity real estate investment trust focused on owning and operating multifamily, healthcare and other properties has seen the value of its shares decline by 11% since the beginning of the year. In late August, Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) signed six agreements to sell 26 senior housing properties for around $236 million, a move that marked the REIT’s exit from that business. The REIT plans to refine its portfolio of assets to complete the transition to a pure-play multifamily REIT. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC was the owner of 2.12 million shares of Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) at the end of June.

The next pages of this insider trading article discuss another set of insider transactions reported with the SEC on Friday.