J C Penney Company Inc (JCP)’s Top Executive Buys Shares; Three Financial Companies See Insider Selling

On Thursday, Richard Spengler, the Executive Vice-President of Investors Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISBC), exercised his stock options to buy 109,999 shares of the company at $5.99 and then sold all of those shares in three transactions at an average price of $11.85 per unit. Mr. Spengler continues to hold 760,212 shares directly following the transactions and additionally, has indirect ownership of 29,858 shares under an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and 15,877 shares via a 401(k) plan. However, the VP is not the only insider that has made a sale lately. On August 24, director Robert M. Cashill also converted stock options into 292,499 shares, which he later unloaded in multiple trades. Mr. Cashill retains ownership of 781,902 shares of Investors Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ. A week earlier, Piper Jaffray upgraded Investors Bancorp to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ and has a $13 price target on the stock, saying that the company can offer “deep value”. The number of investors in our database long Investors Bancorp declined by two to 24 during the second quarter.

Waterstone Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBF) is another financial company that saw an insider unload shares on Thursday. The company’s Chief Operating Officer and general counsel, William F. Bruss, filed two Form 4’s with the SEC, in which he disclosed the sale of a total of 54,865 shares in 31 transactions. The securities were obtained through the conversion of stock options at an acquisition price of $16.11 per unit and were sold at a weighted average price of $16.72 per share. Following the trades, Bruss has direct ownership of 32,107 shares of Waterstone Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBF), as well as indirectly holding 43,848 shares via an ESOP, a 401(k) plan and a custodian, with the latter holding just 21 shares. Since the beginning of the year, Waterstone Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBF)’s stock has gained over 20% and at the end of June, 13 funds in our database held 16.50% of its outstanding stock, including Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, which reported ownership of 2.12 million shares.

Andrew M. Alexander, the President and CEO of Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE:WRI), sold 55,597 shares of the company on Tuesday and Thursday. The first transaction included only 200 shares sold at a price of $41.50 per unit, while the second one included the other 55,397 shares, which were disposed of at $41.67 apiece. The sales didn’t have a big impact on Alexander’s stake in Weingarten as he still owns around 1.05 million shares of the company. Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE:WRI) is a real estate investment trust engaged in leasing spaces in shopping centers. Its stock is up by more than 20% year-to-date and offers an annual dividend yield of 3.50%. However, just ten investors tracked by us held long positions in Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE:WRI) heading into the third quarter.

Disclosure: None