Insider Selling Metric Points To Limited Upside For These 3 Stocks

Tejon Ranch Company (NYSE:TRC) also saw an officer selling shares earlier this week. Dennis Atkinson, Senior Vice President of Agriculture and Water Resources, reported selling 20,000 shares this Tuesday at a price of $19.47 per unit and currently owns 19,251 shares. The shares of this diversified real estate development and agribusiness company have lost 33% this year, presumably due to weaker financial performance. The company reported net income of $1.24 million for the first nine months of 2015, down from $3.74 million reported for the same period of 2014. The bottom-line figure declined year-on-year due to lower mineral resources revenues, which were impacted by lower oil prices, and a reduction in farm revenues. Similarly, Tejon Ranch’s revenues decreased to $35.58 million from $36.51 million year-over-year due to lower mineral resources revenues and farming revenues, which were in turn offset by higher commercial/industrial revenues. The company’s core asset is roughly 270,000 acres of underdeveloped land 60 miles north of Los Angeles, while its business model involves holding land for commercial/industrial and resort/residential uses. Hence, this portion of land might represent a flourishing revenue stream if considering that the nation’s largest population centers are anticipated to grow in the forthcoming future. Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management cut its stake in Tejon Ranch Company (NYSE:TRC) by 2% during the July-to-September period to 2.29 million shares.

Let’s refocus our attention on the insider selling activity reported at Natural Gas Services Group Inc. (NYSE:NGS). To begin with, Chief Financial Officer G. Larry Lawrence offloaded 8,000 shares on Friday at $20.34 apiece, trimming his holding to 36,845 shares. Vice President of Technical Services James R. Hazlett sold 6,500 shares over the past week or so at a weighted average price of $20.27, and currently holds a 53,356-share position. The manufacturer and provider of natural gas compressors and other related equipment has had a relatively strong year, despite facing an extremely challenging environment. Meanwhile, the stock is down by 5% for the year, but still trades at a rather expensive trailing P/E ratio of 25.55. It is commonly known that a low oil and gas price environment has forced companies to cut their capital expenditures for drilling, development and production activities. Consequently, lower capital expenditures result in depressed revenues and profits for services and equipment companies. Nonetheless, Natural Gas Services Group reported total revenues of $70.16 million for the nine months that ended September 30, up from $69.87 million posted for the same period a year ago. This increase was mainly attributable to a weaker-than-expected decline in demand from the energy industry and a higher rental rate of low-to-mid horsepower lift compression. A mere nine hedge funds tracked by our team were invested in the company on September 30, accumulating nearly 14% of its outstanding shares. Matthew A. Weatherbie of Weatherbie Capital reported owning 530,175 shares of Natural Gas Services Group Inc. (NYSE:NGS) through the latest round of 13Fs.

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