Courtesy of Benzinga.
Investors may do well to pay attention to insider transactions, since members of management have a behind-the-scenes view of their company’s operations.
Below are three companies that have recently seen insider purchase transactions and three that have seen recent insider sales.
Insider Purchases:
Rosetta Stone (NYSE: RST): Patrick Gross, a director at Rosetta Stone, bought 10,000 shares at $14.00 on June 6 and 20,000 shares at a price of $13.96 on June 7. Rosetta Stone provides technology-based language learning programs. Rosetta Stone shares have shot up more than 80% year to date.
Rosetta stone traded approximately 0.8% lower today.
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ): On June 5, Lane Raymond, the executive chairman at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), bought 46,400 shares of her company’s stock that was worth a total of $997,600. She also purchased 91,400 shares on June 1 for around $1,994,104. Director of HPQ, Ralph Whitworth also purchased shares on June 1, buying close to 1,959,107 shares worth around $42,453,849.
Hewlett-Packard continues to feel pressure from the rising popularity of people replacing their laptops with tablets, but the aforementioned insider buys might signal that the worst is over. HPQ traded down about 1.1% on the session.
Tempur-Pedic International (NYSE: TPX): Andrews Mclane, director at Tempur Pedic International, bought around 112,000 shares worth $2,801,920 on June 8. Also, David Montgomery, executive vice president, exercised a stock option to purchase 90,000 shares on June 12, after selling 34,700 shares earlier that day. The stock option allowed him to purchase shares below market value, at an average cost of approximately $6.14.
Shares of Tempur-Pedic plunged more than 40% on June 6, when the company released a weak outlook for the rest of 2012. Tempur-Pedic was trading 1.7% lower for the day.
Insider Sales:
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG): Page Lawrence, the CEO of Google, sold 27,778 shares of his companies stock at $562.89 on June 12, after selling the same number of shares on June 11.
Google felt the burden of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) 3D map application that would give turn-by-turn directions with traffic updates. A week before Apple’s announcement, Google had announced their plan to create their map application 3D.
Google was trading close to 0.4% lower today.
Dollar Tree Stores (NASDAQ: DLTR): Stephen White, an officer at Dollar Tree Stores (NASDAQ: DLTR), sold 5,305 shares at a price of $106.27 on June 8. The company’s Chief People Officer, James Fothergill, sold around 5,000 shares for around $519,950 on June 6. On May 21, Dollar Tree Stores announced a 2-1 stock split via common stock dividends. A weakening US economy could have a positive impact on discount stores such as Dollar Tree Stores.
DLTR traded around 0.5% lower today.
Target (NYSE: TGT): Timothy Baer, executive officer at Target, sold 10,000 shares at $58.84 per share on June 8 and 24,872 shares at $59.15 per share on June 11. Retail sales have fallen in the U.S. for two months in a row, hinting at a consumer pull back. Even with falling retail sales, Target saw strong first quarter, seeing an increase in sales and earnings per share.
Target is currently trading near yesterdays closing of $58.16.
