According to Unusual Whales – a service that tracks Congressional trades – Nancy Pelosi saw a 65.5% return in 2023, one of the highest rates in all of Congress. Her most notable recent trade was buying NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) call options in November 2023. That purchase has already exploded in value.

We take a look at other recent purchases disclosed by Pelosi, including a most recent AI buy that investors could still buy for about the same price as where Pelosi scooped up options recently.

Why Pelosi’s Recent Palo Alto Network Purchase is Worth Watching

Below you’ll find some key points from this discussion between 24/7 Wall Street Analysts Eric Bleeker and Austin Smith.

• The story of the market in 2023 – and 2024 – has been NVIDIA’s historic run. One area 24/7 Wall Street analyzes is the trading record of members of Congress as they’re not subject to the same insider trading restrictions as normal citizens. 
• So it’s not uncommon to find – let’s call them lucky purchases – that could have come from information gleaned from Congressional committees that have oversight over different technologies.
• Watching members of Congress isn’t a foolproof strategy, they do have trades that don’t work of course. But some have had good records.
• Here are just the stats in raw form from a site named Unusual Whales that tracks Congressional trades.
  • They found last year Democrats had a 31% performance while Republicans averaged 18%.
  • And one of the members of Congress with the best record was Nancy Pelosi, who had a 65.5% return in 2023.
• It’s worth noting that members of Congress report trades from their spouses as well and Pelosi’s husband is a venture capitalist – so there’s that caveat. However, there’s no denying that their track record recently has been very good.
• And Pelosi’s best buy recently came from the couple purchasing call options on NVIDIA at a price of about $1.8 million.
• The purchase was made on November 22 and was for 50 call options that expired on December 20th.
• As you can imagine, these call options have worked out very well. As of NVIDIA’s close on June 18th, NVIDIA was up 178% since their purchase. That number has come down a bit in recent days, but the buy has still made millions in profits. 
• So, what’s the next stock worth watching in Pelosi’s portfolio?
• We would recommend looking at Palo Alto Networks (Nasdaq: PANW), which is a leading cybersecurity stock.
• Pelosi’s husband has purchased stocks in the cybersecurity space before – he bought Crowdstrike in 2020 and the stock is up more than 200% since.
• On February 26th – the Pelosi’s disclosed two purchases of Palo Alto, both were options and valued at an estimated $925,000.
• The purchases of Palo Alto came after a poor earnings report and the company has traded about flat since.
• Yet, there’s no denying that the rise of AI is a big tailwind for cybersecurity. For example, the cybersecurity venture market saw a 69% jump in first-quarter funding largely thanks to enthusiasm around AI-related spending lifting the industry. 
• And once again, Pelosi’s husband is a venture capitalist by trade. 
• So, if you’re looking for the trade that followed Pelosi’s NVIDIA trade, the next big one is Palo Alto Networks.
• That’s a stock that I (24/7 Wall Street Analyst Eric Bleeker) personally own, but I also own Crowdstrike as well because of the overall attractiveness of the cybersecurity space.

Transcript:

Eric, the story of the market in 2023 and 2024 has been NVIDIA’s absolutely historic run, briefly becoming the largest company on earth.

Maybe it will have reclaimed that title by the time this video publishes.

But one area we like to look at a lot is the trading record of members of Congress.

They’re not subject to the same insider trading restrictions as you or I.

So it’s not uncommon to find, let’s call it a lucky purchase that could come from information gleaned from congressional committees that have oversight over different areas of technology.

So I’m wondering, are there any members of Congress who are ahead of the curve with NVIDIA? And if so, what are they buying now?

Yeah, you know, watching members of Congress, it isn’t a foolproof strategy. They do have trades that don’t work, of course. But some members have very good records.

So here’s just the stats in raw form. This isn’t a political, you know, giving credence to one side or the other, but this is the raw numbers from unusual whales that tracks congressional trades.

They found last year Democrats had 31% performance while Republicans averaged 18%.

And one of the members of Congress who’s extremely powerful with one of the best records was Nancy Pelosi, who had a 65.5% return in 2023.

Austin, I trust just about everyone out there would be begging to see a 65% return in one year now.

Pelosi’s husband is a venture capitalist. So there’s that caveat because members of Congress report trades from their spouses as well.

So I’m just here to say the track record has been very good and it’s worth studying.

And maybe the best buy came recently when the couple purchased call options on NVIDIA at a price of about 1.8 million.

The purchase was made on November 22nd and was for 50 call options that expired on December 20th.

As you can imagine, these call options, they’ve worked out incredibly. As of NVIDIA’s close on June 18th, the stock was up 178% since that purchase.

Here’s the next thing you need to ask for. If you’re looking for signs of maybe some stocks that have some advantages, what’s the most recent stock worth looking at in the Pelosi portfolio?

Well, I would look at Palo Alto Networks. Pelosi’s husband has purchased stocks in the cybersecurity space before. He bought CrowdStrike in 2020 and the stock is up more than 200% since.

On February 26th, the Pelosis disclosed two purchases of Palo Alto. Both were options and valued at an estimated $925,000.

The purchases of Palo Alto came after they had just reported poor earnings, and the company’s trade has remained relatively flat since, so this hasn’t taken off like NVIDIA yet.

There’s no denying that the rise of AI is a big tailwind for cybersecurity. The cybersecurity venture market saw a 69% jump in the first quarter funding statistics, largely thanks to enthusiasm around AI-related spending in the industry.

So once again, Pelosi’s husband, he’s a venture capitalist by trade. Maybe he knows some things about some potential booms happening in this industry.

If you’re looking for a trade that followed the NVIDIA trade, I would say the next big one to pay attention to is Palo Alto Networks.

It’s a stock I personally own. But I should note, I also personally own CrowdStrike as well. So this is a very attractive industry if you lack exposure to it.

Paul Pelosi has done wonderful things for the household finances these last few years. Congratulations to the Pelosi household in video call options and purchases. They’ve done quite well.

As you mentioned, he has a lot of experience in the cybersecurity space. One of the things I really like about this Palo Alto and CrowdStrike call is that as you’ve noted, the boom in AI is going to be even more magnified in the cybersecurity space.

This is a case of heads I win, tails you lose, where AI wins on both sides of it. There are individuals, let’s just be honest about it, who will use AI for nefarious purposes.

And they will be pumping money into the AI ecosystem, trying to break into various secure databases.

And the flip side of that is that you can use AI to try and defend against that as well. So this is a case where AI is probably going to fuel cybersecurity to new heights on both levels with individuals using AI to both attack and defend.

Paul Pelosi certainly appears like he’s got a good beat on this industry right now. So Palo Alto and CrowdStrike, great places for investors to take a look at today.

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