Corporate Insiders Cashing Out Of These 3 Hot Stocks

Let’s now investigate the insider selling activity detected at Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL). Chairman Wilson B. Sexton reported the sale of 46,778 shares on Friday and 33,407 shares on Monday at prices between $82.00 and $82.54 per share, all of which were held through a trust fund. After the recent sizable sell-off, the trust fund holds 370,234 shares of Pool’s common stock, while the Chairman also owns a direct ownership stake of 8,009 shares. The wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies, equipment and other related leisure products recently posted record results for the third quarter. The company’s strong market share and the solid discretionary spending during the period assisted Pool in delivering strong sales, gross profit and earnings growth for the third quarter. The weather conditions positively impacted the company’s financial results for the quarter as well. Meanwhile, shares of Pool are 29% in the green year-to-date and are trading at a relatively rich trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 29.39, which is significantly higher than the mean of 23.12 for the S&P 500 companies. 16 smart money investors tracked by our team had stakes in the company at the end of the third quarter, which amassed 5.40% of its outstanding common stock. Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, held an 892,000-share position in Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) at the end of September.

Last but not least, we will look into the insider selling at Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ:STMP). Director Lloyd I. Miller III reported selling 40,000 shares on Monday at a weighted average sale price of $101.50, while only 12,000 shares of this block were owned directly. 12,000 shares of the aforementioned block were held through a trust account, while the remaining shares were held indirectly via Milgrat (Z9). Following these recent transactions, the Director owns a direct ownership stake of 190,542 shares in addition to several hundred thousand shares owned indirectly.

The shares of the provider of postage online and shipping software solutions are up by 111% for the year, so it is no surprise to see insiders cash out their holdings no matter how much upside the stock might have remaining. Just recently, Stamps.com closed the acquisition of Endicia, a provider of high volume shipping technologies and solutions, which it acquired for $215 million. Earlier this month, Stamps.com also delivered strong third-quarter financial results, posting total revenue of $51.7 million, which was up by 37% year-over-year. Its non-GAAP net income per share came to $1.14, up by 62% relative to the same period of last year. Endicia generated $59 million in revenue in 2014, so the freshly-completed acquisition will give a boost to Stamps.com’s top-line in the upcoming quarters. 27 hedge funds within our database were invested in the company at the end of the September quarter, with Renaissance Technologies being the largest equity holder of Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ:STMP) among them, with 660,621 shares.

Disclosure: None