Insider buying cratered in the week ending April 9th as corporate executives refused to buy into the rally after the recent surge in stocks. Buying has been consistently light since the rally started last March, but was particularly light this week. Total purchases of just $2.1MM was the lowest level during the entire 75% equity rally though the weekly average has ticked slightly higher over the last 8 weeks. Meanwhile, the heavy stream of insider selling continued as insiders unloaded $824mm onto the market.
Of course, insiders sell for various reasons so the high level of selling should be taken with a grain of salt, however, the very low levels of buying are clear evidence of skepticism with regards to the sustainability of any recovery. As evidenced in weak hiring trends and revenue trends corporate executives have yet to see much evidence that this recovery is anything other than a cyclical rebound as opposed to a new secular economic cycle.
Buying was very light this week so there were few notable purchases:
Notable selling:
Source: FinViz
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.