Clorox, Fortune Brands, and More Had Insiders Buy Shares

Ron Wainshal, the CEO of $840 million market cap aircraft lessor Aircastle Limited (NYSE:AYR), purchased 5,000 shares of the stock at an average price of $12.13. Impairment charges have left the company’s net income down, but if Aircastle is able to get past the impairments it looks like earnings per share could be in a good place. Wall Street analyst consensus is for $1.70 per share in earnings for 2013. There is also a high dividend yield, though the stock’s high beta and leverage make it less than optimal for defensive investors.

Household products company Clorox (NYSE:CLX) was another insider target as a Board member bought 2,000 shares directly and another 1,000 shares through a related company, all at an average price of about $76 per share. Clorox trades at 18 times trailing earnings, and with the company reporting very low growth in revenue and earnings we’d think that price might be about right- not a lot of value opportunity on either side of this trade. See our analysis of Clorox.

Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc (NYSE:FBHS) is up 76% year to date, so it’s particularly surprising to see one of the company’s Board members (as well as his spouse) buying the stock. Fortune Brands’ products include cabinetry, plumbing, windows and doors, and security. Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group was buying the stock in the third quarter, with the 3.1 million shares it owned at the end of September up 19% from three months earlier (check out Griffin’s favorite stocks). When we looked at the company it appeared to us that the stock price has outpaced the fundamentals, and so it wouldn’t be a good buy.