Insider Selling Very Mild as Market Rout Hammers Stock Prices

We cover insider selling each and every week at 24/7 Wall St. We like to stress that while significant, insider selling doesn’t necessarily indicate trouble. Many executives are overweighted in their portfolios to their company’s stocks and need to diversify. Often, estate and tax planning is a reason to sell. With that in mind, it is still important to keep a close eye on insider transactions.

Here is this past week’s key insider sellers.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has had a rough last year, with everything from a huge customer credit card hack to horrible results in the company’s Canadian operations. An executive officer at the company sold 40,353 shares of the retailer’s stock at $62.19, for a total sale of $2.5 million. Target closed trading Friday at $60.59, so the sale looks timely.

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Liberty Tax Inc. (NASDAQ: TAX) had a director of the company report selling of stock. The director sold 118,135 shares at $33.10. The total of the sale came to $3.9 million. Liberty Tax is the parent company of Liberty Tax Service. It is the fastest-growing tax preparation franchise and has prepared almost 18 million individual income tax returns in more than 4,400 offices and online. Shares were changing hands at $33.45 as Friday’s trading session came to a close.

Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) had a 10% institutional owner sell some stock this past week. Steelhead Partners parted with a block of 227,179 shares at prices that ranged from $16.07 to $16.19. The total came to $3.7 million. The company is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including newsprint, specialty papers, market pulp and wood products. Shares ended the week at $15.45.

G-III Apparel Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: GIII) had somebody right near the top of the ladder sell stock this week. The vice chairman of the company sold 34,546 shares of stocks at $82.10, for a tidy total of $2.8 million. The stock has been on a roll as the company handily beat earnings last month. Shares closed Friday at $82.20.

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Clearly the bad market action this week kept insiders from selling as much as they usually do. Who can blame them for waiting for a more positive market trend and better bids from buyers?