2023-08-29 15:15:59 ET
Summary
- Energy Transfer LP CEO and Executive Vice President make significant insider purchases, with the CEO's YTD purchases totaling around $115 million.
- Cassava Sciences directors purchase shares amidst discussions of a potential short squeeze, despite the company's net losses and investigations.
- PENN Entertainment director buys shares following the company's $2 billion agreement with ESPN, despite a slight dip in share prices.
Overview
We have been posting quarterly updates on insider activity for more than a year now. With the positive response we've received on those articles we thought it might interesting to provide more frequent updates on insider activity in the markets. This particular article will focus on insider purchases made between August 21st and August 26th and will cover several companies of various sizes. This is slightly different from the quarterly articles which we separate into small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies. With this series we may also cover insider sells if they seem somewhat unusually timed. For the most part insiders sell shares a considerable amount more than they buy them.
Energy Transfer LP ( ET )
We have mentioned ET in almost every large-cap quarterly article we've written so it's fitting that it be in the first weekly update we post as well. CEO Kelcy Warren disclosed purchases of an est. $38 million on Monday along with Executive Vice President Bradford Whitehurst on Wednesday with a slightly less impressive purchase of 10,000 shares for $130,000. This brings the CEO's YTD purchases to around $115 million. He alone now owns about 8.5% of the company's outstanding shares, a stake that at todays' prices is worth just shy of $4 billion. The energy services provider has received extremely high praise in recent months from both authors on Seeking Alpha as well as Wall Street Analysts despite missing earnings expectations in Q1 as well as Q2. Major talking points recently for bulls have been the $7.1 billion all stock deal to buy Crestwood Equity Partners ( CEQP ) and a growing general demand for liquid natural gas services. If you take a look at the chart below you can see how persistent Mr. Warren and other ET insiders have been in their buying efforts over the last couple of years. The last sale we tracked from an insider was a member of the firms general counsel selling back in March of 2020. Since then, insiders have bought back nearly $400 million in company stock with Mr. Warren accounting for some $340 million of that. If insider trading is any indication of the company's stock price, the future looks bright.
ET Insider Trades (Quiver Quant)
Cassava Sciences ( SAVA )
SAVA is a relatively small bio-tech firm best known for its oral Alzheimer's treatment which is currently in phase III clinical trials. The company has long had a notable amount it's outstanding shares sold short. Currently about 28% of the stocks float is short. As the subject of a potential or ongoing short squeeze on and off for the last couple of years the stock has made its way to the top ranks of r/WallStreetBets on several occasions. Discussions have increased again in the last few days likely as a result of purchases made by two SAVA directors. The same two directors made similarly timed purchases last August just before the stock gained as much as 100% over a 2-3 week period. This time around Director Barry Richard bought 18,477 shares for an est. $308 thousand and Director Robertson Sanford bought 30,000 shares for an est. $523 thousand. At the same time SAVA has posted net losses of $24M and $26M in Q1 and Q2 of this year, both of which represent YoY increases, and earnings have slipped below expectations for two consecutive quarters now. The firm has also been under investigation from the FDA, SEC, DOJ, and several other high level organizations for results related to experiments regarding their Alzheimer's drug for more than a year now.
SAVA Insider Trades (Quiver Quant)
PENN Entertainment Inc ( PENN )
PENN made headlines recently when they reached a $2 billion agreement with ESPN to license their Barstool Sportsbook services to the sports media giant under the name 'ESPN BET'. The news drew increased media coverage as reports came out that PENN would also be selling back Barstool Sports to founder Dave Portnoy for at least no cash up front. Shortly following completion of the PENN ESPN deal, PENN Director David Handler bought 20,000 shares for around $453 thousand which ultimately represented a more than 10% increase in his stake. Shares have actually dipped just slightly following the deal as well as Mr. Handlers purchase. As far as analysts on Wall Street and Seeking Alpha are concerned the deal should serve as a major catalyst for the stock with both parties rating PENN a buy and strong buy respectively. The fundamentals on PENN are relatively strong. Revenue and operating income have grown steadily over the past several years and their most 2023 Q1 earnings report absolutely crushed expectations with EPS coming in at 3.05 vs an expected 0.39. Q2 earnings also beat expectations but my significantly slimmer margins. The company trades at quite a cheap P/E of 6x and P/FCF of 8x.
PENN Insider Trades (Quiver Quant)
For further details see:
Week Of 08/21 Notable Insider Buys