Heavy Insider Selling Detected At These Three Companies

Let’s now move on to Syntel Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT), which has had a high volume of insider selling so far this week. Prashant Ranade, Executive Vice Chairman of Syntel’s Board of Directors, offloaded 24,000 shares this week at prices between $46.95 and $47.20 per share, after receiving 6,000 shares according to a stock options and incentive plan. After these transactions, the executive currently holds 105,000 shares. Chief Administrative Officer Daniel M. Moore sold 4,600 shares at a price of $47.36, after being granted 3,000 shares. As a result, the CAO owns 9,652 shares. Moreover, Director George R. Mrkonic sold 2,956 shares on Monday at $46.95 apiece, reducing his stake to 6,468 shares. Finally, Chief Financial and Information Security Officer Arvind S. Godbole unloaded 4,174 shares on Tuesday at a sale price of $46.44, trimming his holding to 8,978 shares. Syntel Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT)’s shares are up by 5% year-to-date, and it seems that these insiders waited for the release of the company’s third quarter earnings report to cash out some of their holdings. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies owned nearly 770,000 shares of Syntel Inc. on June 30.

Last but not least, we will investigate the insider selling activity at Knoll Inc. (NYSE:KNL). Benjamin A. Pardo, Executive Vice President – Design Director, reported selling 6,661 shares on Wednesday at prices ranging from $23.41-to-$23.44, reducing his stake to 37,500 shares. The design firm has seen its shares advance by slightly more than 8% year-to-date, but they have embarked on a steady downtrend since late June. The company’s freshly-published earnings report could not put a halt to this long-lasting downward trend, as the company reported net sales of $263.6 million, which represented a 1.8% year-over-year decrease. Nevertheless, Knoll Inc.’s net earnings increased by 14.7% year-over-year to $17.9 million. Meanwhile, the stock is currently trading at a trailing P/E ratio of 17.23, compared to a P/E ratio of 22.07 for the S&P 500, which could somewhat suggest that the stock is slightly undervalued at the moment (or that the broader market is greatly overvalued). Clifford Fox’s Columbus Circle Investors added a 434,000-share position in Knoll Inc. (NYSE:KNL) to its portfolio during the June quarter.

Disclosure: None