Executives Find This Toy Maker’s Shares Attractive After Stock Price Plunges, Plus Other Insider Trading

President of Marketer of Consumer and Commercial Products Buys Shares After Revenue Guidance Cut

A high-ranked executive at Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE:NWL) also purchased a sizeable block of shares earlier this week. President Mark S. Tarchetti bought 13,000 shares on Tuesday at prices varying from $45.20 to $45.24 per share. Mr. Tarchetti currently owns a stake of 201,995 shares following the transaction.

The insider purchase comes after Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE:NWL), best known for its line of tupperware products, released disappointing financial results for the fourth quarter. More importantly, the company cut its sales outlook for 2017, reflecting exposure to the struggling brick-and-mortar retail industry. Newell Brands anticipates core sales growth in the range of 2.5%-to-4.0% for 2017, down from their initial guidance of 3.0%-to-4.0%. As already suggested above, the guidance cut reflects revised expectations on the company’s businesses with larger U.S. mall-based retail presence due to lower expectations for U.S. retail mall foot traffic. Investors will mostly focus on the company’s ability to achieve cost synergies from several large acquisitions completed in recent years. The global marketer of consumer and commercial products has seen the value of its shares increase by 32% in the past year. Iridian Asset Management, founded by David Cohen and Harold Levy, upped its position in Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE:NWL) by 45% to 5.17 million shares during the fourth quarter.

Executive at Beleaguered Toy Maker Buys Shares After Share Price Plunge

Our insider trading database shows that Mattel Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) had not seen any insiders purchase shares since mid-2015 until this week. Richard R. Gros, Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President, acquired 9,610 shares on Tuesday at prices that fell between $26.015 and $26.020. After the Tuesday purchase, Mr. Gros currently owns an aggregate of 14,744 shares.

The shares of largest U.S. toy maker plunged in late January after the company reported quarterly earnings and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Mattel Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT)’s shares are down 14% in the past month, after experiencing one of the biggest declines on a percentage basis in the past decade or so. A difficult holiday season affected the company’s toy sales from all manufacturers, according to CEO Christopher Sinclair. Meanwhile, Barclays analysts do not believe the massive share price drop made Mattel’s shares more attractive, saying that “investors are going to focus on the sustainability of the dividend yet again which could also be an overhang.” Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management trimmed its position in Mattel Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) by 26% to around 146,000 shares during the December quarter.

The final page of this insider trading article discusses insider selling at two other companies.