Notable insider selling has been detected this week in the shares of three companies: Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX), Bofl Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI), and Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC). We’ll take a look at the action surrounding each and study the companies in question to attempt to get a gauge on the insider activity.
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Let’s start with Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX), a company which installs and services heating and air conditioning ventilation and systems, in addition to other construction and business services. Two insiders have made a total of three sales of shares over the past two days, with President and CEO Brian Lane selling 12,039 shares on August 10, and Director Alfred Giardenelli selling 10,000 shares on August 10 and another 5,000 shares on August 11. Seeing insiders cashing in on some of their holdings isn’t surprising given the robust growth of the stock this year, with it up by 65% in 2015, pushing the company’s market cap over the billion-dollar mark. Recently, shares surged on July 31 following the company’s second quarter results, when it handily topped earnings estimates by nearly 50%, pulling in $0.35 per share. Zacks upgraded the company to a ‘Strong Buy’ from a ‘Hold’ shortly after, which contributed to a strong push for another week until yesterday, when the insider selling may have contributed to the stock being pushed down by about 7%. Nonetheless, investors like Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates have to be quite pleased with its performance. The mutual fund holds 755,722 shares of Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX) as of June 30, selling a handful of shares during the second quarter.
Let’s move on to BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI), which also had two insiders sell shares on Monday. Director Paul Grinberg sold 12,204 shares at a cool $129.99 each, while EVP and CFO Andrew Micheletti scored an even cooler $130.60 per share he sold, which was 19,000 in all. BofI has had a nearly identical 2015 performance to Comfort Systems, gaining over 64% year-to-date, including a similar late July surge following its own quarterly results, which in this case were the company’s fiscal fourth quarter and full-year 2015 results, for the period ended June 30. BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI), a holding company for BofI Federal Bank, which services consumers and businesses in all 50 U.S states through a single location in San Diego, California, earned $1.54 per diluted share for its fiscal fourth quarter, up from $1.09 a year ago, while net income for the 2015 fiscal year was up by 47.8% to $82.68 million. 13 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held positions in the company as of March 31, with few reporting any ownership as of June 30 of those funds that have filed thus far. One of them is John Horseman’s Horseman Capital Management, which owns 3,000 shares, a new position for the fund. On the other hand, Citadel Advisors and Stevens Capital Management closed their small positions.
Lastly we come to Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC), which had one insider sale on Monday, from the VP and General Manager of the ARC Speciality Products division, David Ludwig, who sold 15,000 shares at $61.59 apiece. Unlike the previous two, shares of Balchem are down this year, by 8.43%, and have traded relatively sideways for the past 20 months. They did see a spike on August 5 though, just before the sale, gaining nearly 10% on the strength of improving financial results. The company, which sells specialty performance ingredients for food and feed, including animal feed, saw year-over-year increases on both its top and bottom line during the second quarter. Its ARC division, which Ludwig heads, deals in packaged ethylene oxide for the healthcare industry, as well as propylene oxide, a hazardous chemical used in the construction of foams, coatings, and adhesives, among other uses. Royce & Associates also holds the largest stake in Balchem of the funds we track which have reported for the June 30 period, holding 1.07 million shares.
Disclosure: None
