Ken Fisher believes that the recent correction is likely to continue even though it will be “over as fast as it began”. What if the recent pullback is set to continue as Fisher suggests? Some corporate insiders might have got a little nervous about the current turmoil, which could make them think that their companies will have a hard time going through a potential longer-than-expected “mini-crash”. Stock markets have experienced two serious pullbacks in August, and the fact that insiders are selling after the second pullback might represent a warning flag. In the following article, we will be discussing three companies that saw insiders sell their shares recently. Specifically, we will take a look at the insider selling activity at Village Super Market Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), Syntel Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT), and RigNet Inc. (NASDAQ:RNET).
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The Estate of Perry Sumas, an insider of Village Super Market Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), has been gradually reducing its stake in the company over the last few months. On September 2, Estate of Perry Sumas offloaded 2,400 shares of Village Super Market at a price of $27.19 per share, trimming its stake to 887,233 shares. However, it is highly unlikely that the recent insider selling activity is somewhat related to the current turmoil in financial markets. The shares of Village Super Market are currently trading at the same level as they were trading throughout this year, so it seems that the Estate is simply trying liquidating the position. Just recently, the company that operates a chain of supermarkets in the U.S. announced the authorization of a share repurchase program of up to $5 million. From the massive pool of investors tracked by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates is the top shareholder of Village Super Market Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), holding 1.24 million shares as of June 30.
Let’s now turn our attention to Syntel Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT), a tech company that offers digital transformation, information technology, and knowledge process outsourcing services worldwide. Raja Ray, who serves as Head of Telecom Business Unit and Senior Vice President of Retail – CPG of Syntel, unloaded 1,176 shares for $42.66 apiece on Wednesday. After the aforementioned sale, the executive holds 11,074 shares. Syntel’s stock has lost nearly 4% since the beginning of the year, partly owing to the recent broader market correction. A little more than a week ago, equities researchers at Robert W. Baird upgraded Syntel shares to “Outperform” from “Neutral”, maintaining the price target of $54 per share, which represents a premium of over 20%, but it does not seem that it will be achieved soon enough given the current state of the stock market. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies owns a stake of 769,990 shares of Syntel Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT) as of the end of June.
Finally, William D. Sutton, Secretary, Senior Vice President, and General Counsel at RigNet Inc. (NASDAQ:RNET), reported selling 3,444 shares at $27.84 per unit on Wednesday, which reduced his stake to 17,300 shares. Due to the fact that the company provides digital technology solutions to the oil and gas industry, its stock has been following the ups and downs of the energy sector. The shares of RigNet have lost slightly over 30% since the beginning of 2015. Even though the slump of the commodity affected the company’s top-line in the second quarter, RigNet managed to deliver solid results with revenues of $75.1 million, down by 6.9% year-over-year, while its earnings came at $15.4 million or $0.86 per share, up by an annual 3.8%. Many believe that the company is well-positioned to post strong results in the upcoming quarters as well, in spite of the current challenges faced by the energy sector. In the meantime, Dan Friedberg’s Sagard Capital Partners Management Corp boosted its stake in RigNet Inc. (NASDAQ:RNET) by 81% during the second quarter to 216,152 shares.
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