Two REITs And One Casino Operator Witness Heavy Insider Selling

Duke Realty Corp (NYSE:DRE) also saw one of its top executives sell shares last week. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dennis D. Oklak unloaded 14,225 shares last Monday and 24,700 shares on Tuesday at a weighted average price of $21.03, trimming his overall holding to 318,534 shares. This REIT owns and operates a portfolio of industrial, medical office and office properties, but also offers real estate services. Its shares are nearly 4% in the green year-to-date despite suffering several major pullbacks this year. It appears that the rising interest rate environment is not likely to have a significant impact on the company’s interest rate payments, as the REIT has been primarily borrowing at fixed rates in order to diminish the impact of interest rate fluctuations. The REIT reported revenues of $727.87 million for the first nine months of 2015, down from $800.57 million reported a year ago. Nonetheless, its diluted net income per share increased to $1.70 from $0.62 reported for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2014. Meanwhile, the REIT’s overall occupancy rate reached 96.3% on September 30, up from 95.3% registered a year ago. The number of smart money investors with positions in Duke Realty Corp (NYSE:DRE) dropped to 12 from 16 during the third quarter, while Israel Englander’s Millennium Management cut its stake in the company by 10% during the quarter to roughly 783,000 shares.

Last but not least, we will look into the insider selling activity at Century Casinos Inc. (NASDAQ:CNTY). Chairman and Co-CEO Erwin Et Al Haitzmann sold out his entire stake of 13,650 shares on Wednesday at prices in the range of $7.10 to $7.16 per share. The executive also holds an indirect ownership stake of 1.35 million shares. The shares of this international casino entertainment company have advanced 38% since the beginning of the year, which could somewhat explain the CEO’s decision to cash out. Even so, the stock still trades at a cheap trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51, which is substantially lower than the average of 22.95 for the companies included in the S&P 500 benchmark. The company generated total operating revenue of $101.80 million for the nine-month period that ended September 30, as compared to $88.79 million reported a year ago. Most importantly, its net earnings increased to $11.17 million from $1.46 million reported for the first nine months of 2014. At the same time, analysts anticipate earnings per share growth of nearly 10% next year, which yields a forward P/E ratio of only 11.20 (the forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 stands at 17.47). A number of eight hedge funds from our database had stakes in the company at the end of the third quarter, amassing 22% of its outstanding shares. John W. Rogers’ Ariel Investments reported owning 3.45 million shares of Century Casinos Inc. (NASDAQ:CNTY) through the latest round of 13Fs.

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