One thing is for sure, as the earnings season concludes, our suspicion that windows of opportunity would open for executives and 10% owners is proving to be spot on. While the markets have generally traded down so far this month, that has given many people the opportunity they may have been looking for to either initiate positions or add to current holdings.
We cover insider buying every week at 24/7 Wall St., and we like to remind our readers that while insider buying is usually a very positive sign, it is not in of itself a reason to run out and buy a stock. Sometimes insiders and 10% owners have stock purchase plans set up at intervals to add to their holdings. That aside, it still remains a positive indicator.
Here are some of the companies that reported notable insider buying this week.
Colfax Corp. (NYSE: CFX) had a director at the company really step up to the plate and buy shares last week. That director purchased 261,600 shares of the stock at prices that ranged from $38.11 to $38.83. The total for the buy came to $10 million. Colfax is an industrial manufacturing and engineering company that provides gas and fluid handling and fabrication technology products and services to commercial and governmental customers worldwide. The shares closed trading on Friday at $40.12, so a well-timed buy. For shareholders this may mark the bottom, as the stock has been in a slide since May.
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Aon PLC (NYSE: AON) also had a director come in heavy on the buy desk this past week. That director purchased a block of 75,000 shares of the stock at a price of $100.79 per share. The total for the purchase came to $7.6 million. Aon provides risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage and human resource consulting and outsourcing services worldwide. Shares were trading slightly up from the purchase price on Friday’s close at $101.32.
UTI Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: UTIW) had a 10% owner buying stock this week. P2 Capital Partners acquired a massive 875,000 shares at $8.19 apiece. The total for the buy came to $7.2 million. UTI Worldwide operates as a non-asset-based supply chain services and solutions company. It operates through two segments: Freight Forwarding and Contract Logistics and Distribution. The stock ended the week at $7.97 a share.
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) had a host of C suite executives buying stock this week. The chief accounting officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, a director and a senior vice president all purchased shares this week. That was a total of 140,525 shares combined, at prices that ranged from $27.30 to $28.55. The total for the purchase came to a tidy $3.9 million. This top master limited partnership was one that we featured this week as Jefferies is very bullish on the company. The shares ended trading on Friday at $26.43.
Horsehead Holding Inc. (NASDAQ: ZINC) hits our screens for the third time in the past 45 days. Dalal Street, which is a 10% holder of the company’s stock, continued the recently buying binge by adding another 406,695 shares at prices between $8.02 and $8.25 apiece. That cost them about $3.3 million. The company produces and sells zinc and nickel-based products primarily in the United States and Canada. It also offered outstanding earnings on Friday, and the stock closed trading at $8.69.
These companies were among many that also reported insider buying this week: Chevron Inc. (NYSE: CVX), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY), Pinnacle Foods Inc. (NYSE: PF) and Twitter Inc. (NASDAQ: TWTR).
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Our readers may be interested to know that we are seeing a pick-up in energy buying, and to also see a Twitter purchase may signal the bottom for that struggling technology company. We will monitor reports closely for any increase in the purchasing of out-of-favor sectors and companies.
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