SYNNEX, Hibbett Sports, and Alnylam Among 5 Stocks With Notable Insider Trading

U.S indexes have opened lower this morning, as the trading week has kicked off with a plunge in global bonds courtesy of inflation fears. Those fears were stoked recently after officials in both the U.S and U.K stated that they aren’t concerned with overshooting inflation targets.

It appears that the insiders of several companies are also taking a bearish stance, as this daily edition of the latest insider trading activity shows that sales dominated the list of insider transactions reported with the SEC on Friday. We’ll take a look at five companies with insider activity in this article and also check out how hedge funds have been trading these stocks recently.

Through extensive research that covered the portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

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Former President of Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) Sells Shares

Michael J. Newsome, the Chairman of Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB)’s Board of Directors and the former President of the company, sold 10,000 shares on Thursday at an average selling price of $39.97. That leaves Mr. Newsome with a direct ownership stake of 29,882 shares. The latest insider sale is Mr. Newsome’s third in the past three months, during which time he’s sold just under 20,000 shares.

After losing half of their value during 2014 and 2015, shares of Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) are back on the rise, having gained 33% this year. The sports clothing retailer has seen its net sales rise by 4.3% during the first half of its fiscal year 2017, thanks in part to the bankruptcy of sporting goods rivals like Sports Authority and Vestis Retail Group earlier this year. Despite the gains this year, Hibbett Sports is still well off of its historical valuation, trading at just 2.80-times its book value and at a P/E ratio of just 13.17.

Multiple hedge funds in our system opened new positions in Hibbett Sports during the second quarter, including First Pacific Advisors, Renaissance Technologies, and Hutchin Hill Capital. Overall, 13 funds in our system were long the stock on June 30, up from nine a quarter earlier.

More Insider Selling at SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX)

Just a couple of weeks after we reported a load of insider selling at SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX), yet more selling has been reported with the SEC. Peter Larocque, the President of the company’s North America Distribution, reported selling a total of 12,151 shares in multiple transactions last week, cutting his direct ownership stake to 14,303 shares.

After hitting their 52-week high at the end of September, SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX) shares have trended downward throughout October, giving back over 10% of their value as investors and insiders engaged in profit taking. Following the company’s better-than-expected fiscal third quarter results on September 26, Brean Capital analyst Ananda Baruah raised his price target on the stock to $124 from $108. Mr. Baruah believes that the company is positioning itself for normalized earnings in the $8-to-$9 range in 2018. SYNNEX has guided for earnings of $6.90 for its fiscal 2017 year. 13 hedge funds in our system were shareholders of SYNNEX at the end of June, owning 2.50% of its shares.

We’ll check out the latest insider trading activity at three other companies on the second page of this article.