One REIT and Three Healthcare Companies See Insiders Buying and Selling Stock

The Chief Executive Officer of French biotech company Flamel Technologies S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:FLML) also acquired shares recently. Michael S. Anderson added 5,000 shares to his directly-held stake, having raised it to 189,250 shares. The securities were acquired yesterday at $14.29 per share. Mr. Anderson’s position also includes 50,000 restricted American Depositary Shares (ADS’s) granted in 2014 under the company’s “Free Share” award program and 50,000 restricted ADS’s, also offered under the “Free Share” award program earlier this month. Flamel Technologies S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:FLML) is engaged in formulation development and drug delivery. Its shares have climbed by 22% since the beginning of 2016 and among its largest shareholders are many healthcare-focused funds, such as Kevin Kotler‘s Broadfin Capital, which holds 4.39 million shares and VHCP Management, which mainly invests in biotech stocks and owns 500,000 shares of Flamel Technologies S.A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:FLML) as of the end of June.

Theravance Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:TBPH) has seen a key executive sell shares in the last couple of days. Bradford J. Shafer, the company’s executive vice-president, general counsel and secretary, unloaded 53,130 shares in several transactions between August 18 and August 22, at an average price of $27.49 per share. One of the transactions involved 4,008 shares used as a “payment of exercise price or tax liability by delivering or withholding securities,” while the other three transactions represented open market or private sales of securities. Following the sales, Mr. Shafer has direct ownership of 195,730 shares of Theravance Biopharma. Even though Theravance Biopharma posted lower-than-expected top- and bottom-line figures for the last two quarters, the stock is up by nearly 70% since the beginning of the year. However, its Vibativ product is seeing strong growth (152% annual sales growth in the US in the second quarter) and analysts are bullish on the stock. A total of 12 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held over 40% of Theravance’s stock heading into the third quarter, compared to nine funds a quarter earlier.

Last but not least, Colin Shannon, president and CEO of PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) sold 120,000 shares of the company in several transactions over the course of Thursday, Friday and Monday. The chief executive exercised his stock options to acquire 120,000 shares of PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) at $2.94 per unit and unloaded the shares in four transactions, including 6,867 shares withheld in payment of the exercise price of options. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.56 per share and following the transactions, Mr. Shannon doesn’t hold any shares of PRA Health, but owns 124,637 stock options. The stock of the biotech contract research organization has appreciated by more than 15% year-to-date, boosted by better-than-expected results delivered by the company. However, the popularity of PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) among the investors we track declined during the second quarter, as the number of funds with long positions in it fell to 18 from 21.

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