Heavy Insider Selling Witnessed At These Companies Amid Negative Market Sentiment

All major U.S. indexes closed sharply in the red on Monday, with the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index incurring the largest one-day loss over the past four weeks. Reputable hedge fund manager Carl Icahn released a video at midnight speaking about his thoughts on several political and economic issues, including the low interest rate environment pursued by the Federal Reserve. The video clearly pinpoints some loopholes in the U.S stock markets and in the economy overall, which might imply that there is more trouble ahead. Simultaneously, a bounty of corporate executives and other insiders have been dumping their holdings lately, pointing to the seriousness of the current market sentiment. Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RH), and Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) are three companies that have registered significant insider selling activity as of late. In the following article we will attempt to stipulate whether the insider sales at these companies might be somewhat related to their future prospects or not.

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Let’s start off by investigating insiders’ bearishness at Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG). Charif Souki, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Cheniere, reported selling 100,000 shares during the previous week at prices in the range of $46.25-to-$50.42, all of which were owned by a trust. It is highly likely that the decision to sell these shares was not entirely made by the Co-Founder, but the selling might still bear some information. It is also worth mentioning that Charif Souki owns an additional 3.75 million shares. The shares of the U.S liquefied natural gas exporter have lost significant ground in 2015, dropping by more than 32% year-to-date. China’s economic slowdown and the dwindling demand for gas might explain the disappointing stock performance. A little more than a week ago, Cheniere announced a freshly-signed deal to deliver 24 cargoes to Électricité de France S.A. from 2017 through 2018, which proves that the company has been quite successful in tackling the sluggish demand from China. Just recently, Carl Icahn of Icahn Enterprises LP boosted his position in Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG) to 11.43% of the company’s shares.

Moving on to Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RH), two different insiders sold stock of the home-furnishings company last week. Chief Creative Officer Eri Chaya unloaded 15,000 shares at $101 per share, trimming her overall holding to 9,045 shares. The sales of the other insider were executed under a trading plan, activity which we disregard, as it does not signify a spur-of-the-moment transaction. The second quarter financial results of the company, revealed on September 10, sent its shares surging during the day of their announcement, but the gains have been narrowing since then. Even so, the stock has lost slightly over 3% since the beginning of the year. Going back to the recently-published financial results, the company reported net revenues of $506.9 million, which were up by 17% year-over-year. At the same time, Restoration Hardware’s adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.85, compared to $0.67 reported a year ago. It seems that the broader market selling is putting downward pressure on the stock, which may also explain the CCO’s decision to jettison a part of her stake. Tiger Global Management, founded by Tiger Cub Chase Coleman, owns 3.19 million shares of Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RH) as of June 30.

Last but not least, Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP)’s Executive Vice President, David C. Reglin, reported offloading 3,877 shares last week through multiple transactions at prices between $14.58 and $14.63. After those transactions, the executive directly owns 56,473 shares, along with an additional 8,619 shares held indirectly. Moreover, President and CEO William B. Kessel sold 5,000 shares a little more than a week ago at prices of between $14.14 and $14.16 per share, reducing his stake to 81,234 shares. The shares of the bank holding company for Independent Bank have had a great run this year despite facing the negative stock market sentiment lately, delivering a return of over 12% year-to-date. The company is set to release its third quarter financial results on October 29, which will surely shed some light on how the bank has been performing lately. Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital reported owning 1.11 million shares of Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) via its latest 13F filing with the SEC.

Disclosure: None