There have been a lot of talks lately about a potential decision by the Fed to raise interest rates during their two-day policy meeting next week. Even though the likelihood of seeing a rate hike is not that high, that possibility is still out there. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to predict how a potential rate increase would impact equities in the United States. Truth be told, a rate hike will surely not be taken as a sign of faith in the U.S. economy from the Federal Reserve. So it might be the case that some corporate executives fear the possibility of this rate rise taking place, so they started unloading shares of their companies in an attempt to take profits off the table or lock in losses. In the following article, we will focus our discussion on three companies that had a large volume of insider selling activity recently and will attempt to find out the motives behind insiders’ moves. Voya Financial Inc (NYSE:VOYA), EarthLink Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:ELNK), and GenMark Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:GNMK) are the three companies that saw insiders sell their stock on Friday. However, it is worth noting that insider selling may occur for a multitude of reasons unrelated to companies’ prospects, so this activity should not be taken as a bearish sign on every occasion.
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We will start off by discussing the insider selling at Voya Financial Inc (NYSE:VOYA), a retirement, investment, and insurance company in the United States. Joseph D. Horan, who recently assumed the role of interim Chief Accounting Officer and Controller of Voya, sold off his 2,944-share stake at prices of $42.44 and $42.45 per share. The shares of the U.S insurer are trading at the same level they were at the beginning of the year, after being pushed down by the broader market sell-off. Generally, insurance companies are quite sensitive to interest rates, as the premium received from policyholders needs to earn a proper return so as to cover future claims. Therefore, it is not likely that Joseph Horan’s decision to sell Voya’s shares are somewhat related to the potential rate hike. Voya Financial Inc (NYSE:VOYA) recently sold a block of in-force term insurance policies worth $90 billion to Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (NYSE:RGA) in order to ease some capital limitations. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital is one of the top equity holders of Voya within our database, owning 5.88 million shares.
Let’s now move on to EarthLink Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:ELNK), a company that offers managed network, security, and cloud solutions for multi-location businesses. The company’s Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President, Rick C. Froehlich, unloaded his entire stake of 16,408 shares for $8.69 each. The stock has doubled since the beginning of the year, and is trading at levels not seen since mid-May of 2012. Therefore, the recent sell-off might suggest that EarthLink’s stock will have a hard time moving past the $9-roof again. Earlier this week, Michael P. Flannery, who serves as Managing Director of Small Business and Senior Vice President, also sold off all of his 8,204 shares at a price of $8.65 per share. EarthLink Holdings posted total revenue of $283.7 million for the second quarter, which marks a decline of 4.6% year-over-year. However, the company’s net loss tightened significantly, reaching $9.9 million, compared to $21.8 million reported a year ago. From the massive pool of hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies is the largest shareholder of EarthLink Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:ELNK), with 6.15 million shares.
The molecular diagnostics company GenMark Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:GNMK) saw six different executives sell shares on Friday. The insiders sold 21,134 shares on aggregate during the day, and we will now take a closer look at the most prominent selling activity. Jennifer Williams, who has served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources since March 2014, sold 17,980 shares at a price of $9.99 per share on September 11 and 300 shares for $10.00 each a day earlier. Following the transactions, the executive currently owns 132,792 shares. At the same time, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Hany Massarany, unloaded 1,683 shares at $9.64 apiece, trimming his stake to 89,557 shares. The shares of GenMark have been on a downswing throughout the year, losing more than 26% year-to-date. The company has seen continued robust performance of its XT-8 business, with 29 additional XT-8 analyzers placed in end-user laboratories during the second quarter. Adage Capital Management, founded by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, holds 2.02 million shares of GenMark Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:GNMK) as of June 30.
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