Insider Buyers Putting a Floor Under the Market
News that insider buying had increased dramatically and a lack of bad news from Europe caused another bullish stampede in the market today (Dow up 423 points).
Sixty-six insiders at 50 companies bought their company stock from August 3-9, the most since immediately before the brutal bear market low in March 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Insider buyers of stock outnumbered sellers by a ratio of 7 to 2. This is approximately opposite of the normal ratio where sellers typically outnumber buyers.
Some of the companies reporting insider buying activity include:
Morgan Stanley (MS) 3 insiders bought 175,000 shares
General Motors (GM) one insider bought 10,000 shares
MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) 6 insiders bought 468,057 shares
Celgene (CELG) CEO bought shares worth $527,000
Cintas (CTAS) CEO bought $17.8 million worth
Etrade Financial (ETFC) CEO bought $1 million worth
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) CEO bought $249,400 worth of shares
Helix Energy Solutions Group (HLX) CEO bought shares worth $997,200
Six Flags Entertainment (SIX) CEO bought shares worth $2.5 million
Kinder Morgan (KMR) CEO bought shares worth $1.5 million
Huntsman (HUN) CEO bought shares worth $1.1 million
WMS Industries (WMS) CEO bought shares worth $1.0 million
Chemed (CHE) CEO bought shares worth $2.1 million
CNA Financial (CNA) CEO bought shares worth $970,400
Cleco (CNL) CEO bought shares worth $698,100
NYSE Euronext (NYX) CEO bought shares worth $684,000
Kinder Morgan (KMI) CEO bought shares worth $679,000
Tupperware Brands (TUP) CEO bought shares worth $507,045
Opko Health (OPK) CEO bought shares worth $491,700
Kansas City Southern (KSU) CEO bought shares worth $253,100
AK Steel Holdings (AKS) CEO bought shares worth $199,000
Larry Kudlow covered the topic of insider buying on his show this evening and highlighted a few other companies: