SEC Commissioner Jackson: Buybacks Coincide With Increased Insider Selling (Benzinga)
Call it a coincidence or something more malicious, but according to a prominent SEC commissioner, there is a strong correlation between company buybacks subsequent stock sales from executives. Specifically, SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson found that company insiders are far more likely to sell their shares the day of an announced share buyback. Additionally, he found, companies that allow this tend to underperform over time, suggesting the executive paydays are coming at the expense of shareholders. “CEOs don’t sell valuable things cheaply,” he told CNN on Wednesday. “Executives are using buybacks as a way to cash out.”
A Director at Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) is Buying Shares (AnalystRatings)
Today, a Director at Encompass Health Corporation (EHC), Leo Higdon, bought shares of EHC for $58.84K. Following Leo Higdon’s last EHC Buy transaction on November 03, 2015, the stock climbed by 25.5%. This is Higdon’s first transaction since reporting a Sell transaction on EV back in October 2018. Based on Encompass Health Corporation’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $1.1 billion and quarterly net profit of $28.1 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $1.01 billion and had a net profit of $60.4 million. EHC’s market cap is $5.84B and the company has a P/E ratio of 20.16. Currently, Encompass Health Corporation has an average volume of 490.5K.
Former Equifax Executive Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading (TimesFreePress)
ATLANTA (AP) — A former Equifax executive who sold shares for nearly $1 million a week and a half before the company announced a massive data breach pleaded guilty Thursday in Atlanta to a federal insider trading charge. Jun Ying, 43, exercised all his available stock options before making the sale and realized a gain of more than $480,000 on the sale, prosecutors said. That’s about $117,000 more than it would have been worth immediately after the price plummeted when the breach was disclosed.
Friday 3/8 Insider Buying Report: ARNC, UVE (Nasdaq.com)
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. At Arconic, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, CEO John C. Plant bought 105,000 shares of ARNC, at a cost of $18.51 each, for a total investment of $1.94M. Investors have the opportunity to bag ARNC even cheaper than Plant did, with shares changing hands as low as $18.11 in trading on Friday which is 2.1% under Plant’s purchase price. Arconic is trading up about 0.3% on the day Friday.
PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL) Insider Trading Activity – Chairman Sold 225,365 shares of Stock (MarketExclusive)
Insider Trading Activity For PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL): William H. Spence , Chairman of PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL) reportedly Sold 225,365 shares of the company’s stock at an average price of 32.5 for a total transaction amount of $7,324,362.50.
