Three Companies with Clusters of Insider Selling That Are Hard To Ignore

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) had three different insiders sell shares over the past week or so. Richard F. Ambrose, Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems Company business area, sold out his entire direct ownership stake of 22,103 shares last Friday at prices that ranged from $213.30 to $214.37 per share. Dale P. Bennett, Executive Vice President of the company’s Mission Systems and Training business area, sold 6,000 shares on Monday at prices ranging from $215.05 to $215.42 per share. The EVP also sold 10,800 freshly-exercised options on the same day. After the recent transactions, the executive holds a stake of 17,387 shares. Last but not least, Richard H. Edwards, Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control business area, discarded 20,000 shares on the same day at prices that fell between $214.70 and $216.63 per unit and trimmed his stake to 2,653 shares.

The global security and aerospace company offers products and services with defense, civil and commercial applications, while its main customers are represented by agencies of the U.S. Government. In fact, 78% of the company’s 2015 net sales were generated from the U.S. Government. The shares of Lockheed Martin have advanced 7% over the past 52 weeks and are priced at 16 times expected earnings. This compares with the forward P/E multiple of 15 for the Aerospace and Defense industry. The company had $46.13 billion in net sales last year, up from $45.60 billion reported for 2014. A total of 37 hedge funds from our database were invested in the company at the end of December 2015. First Eagle Investment Management reported owning 1.82 million shares of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) through its latest 13F filing.

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