Insider Buying Investors Should Follow Witnessed At These 3 Companies

Atlantic Power Corp (NYSE:AT) saw four different insiders purchase shares in the last trading week of 2015, so let’s take a look at the most noteworthy purchases. To start with, President and Chief Executive Officer James J. Moore Jr. snapped up exactly 100,000 shares on Thursday at prices that ranged from $1.78 to $1.80 per share, lifting his total stake to 350,253 shares. Joseph E. Cofelice, Executive Vice President of Commercial Development, bought 30,000 shares on the same day at a weighted average price of $1.98 and currently owns 322,625 shares. Last but not least, Director Gilbert Samuel Palter reported purchasing 58,245 shares last week at a weighted average cost of $1.80, all of which are held by EGADS Enterprises (a bare trust of which the Director is the sole shareholder). After the recent purchase, EGADS Enterprises holds a stake of 350,000 shares. Atlantic Power owns and operates a fleet of power generation assets in the U.S. and Canada, while its power generation projects primarily sell electricity to utilities and other commercial customers under long-term contracts. This tends to reduce the exposure to fluctuations in commodity prices, but Atlantic Power still had a disappointing performance in 2015. The company reported project revenue of $321.8 million for the nine months that ended September 30, down from $370.0 million reported a year ago. The stock is down nearly 27% over the past year, which might explain the exploding insider trading activity on the buy side. Joel Ramin’s 12 West Capital Management upped its position in Atlantic Power Corp (NYSE:AT) by 21% during the third quarter to 7.31 million shares.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. (NYSE:SHO) had not witnessed insider buying in more than a year until last week. Senior Vice President and General Counsel David Ryan Sloan acquired 17,750 shares last Monday at a price of $13.8 per share, currently owning 67,516 shares. The lodging real estate investment trust has seen its shares decline by 28% over the past year, partially owing to a significant sell-off that kicked off during the holiday-shortened trading session ahead of Christmas. The company mainly operates upper upscale hotels in the United States and primarily strives for operating in urban locations that benefit from high barriers to entry. The demand for lodging in the U.S. has been on an uptrend since the end of 2009, which has been reflected in Sunstone’s stock performance. Last year was not bad either for Sunstone Hotel Investors in terms of financial performance, as the company reported total revenues of $948.25 million for the nine-month period ended September 30, up from $852.12 million reported a year ago. The rising interest rate environment might put some weight on the company’s performance, as the increasing cost of capital can hinder its growth plan. A mere ten hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were invested in the REIT at the end of the third quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC cut its stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. (NYSE:SHO) by 39% during the September quarter to 1.87 million shares.

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