Insiders Buying Up Shares Of Hilton (HLT) And These Other Stocks

Let’s move on to Kronos Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:KRO), where Chairman Steven Watson has been on a buying spree, snapping up 24,500 shares of the company on August 10. In this case, we can see that emulating insider purchases in the hopes of immediate results does not always pay off, as Watson also purchased 10,000 shares on May 8 in a sign of confidence after a big dip on May 7; however, the stock has fallen by another 33% since then and is down by nearly 40% year-to-date. The latest share plunge came after the company reported a second quarter loss of $159.8 million, a loss of $1.38 per share or a loss of $0.08 per share when adjusted for pretax expenses, while analysts had predicted a profit of $0.23 per share. Just eight funds tracked by Insider Monkey had long positions in the stock as of March 31, and held just over half a percentage point of the company’s shares. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment was the largest investor in the company within our database at that time, owning 234,495 shares, but the firm sold off its position during the second quarter. Needless to say, there isn’t much optimism for Kronos Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:KRO) at the moment, aside from the continuing brave face put on by Chairman Stevens.

Lastly is Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA), the Chairman and CEO of which, Greg Johnson, purchased 20,000 shares of on Monday at a price tag of $36.46 each. Though coming at a none-too-cheap price tag of $729,200, the shares are only a paltry addition to Johnson’s holding, with the company’s head honcho now boasting over 1.26 million shares worth over $45.19 million. Nonetheless, those holdings were worth considerably more just a few months ago, as Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA)’s stock has lost over 30% of its value since late April. Unsurprisingly, we see that all three of the purchases covered in this article were in stocks which had recent rough stretches, as is commonly the case with insider purchases. The latest rough stretch for Plains All American Pipeline came on August 5 following the release of its second quarter earnings after-hours the previous day. Among other things, it was revealed that the company is under investigation by the Department of Justice related to environmental safety and could potentially be subject to hefty fines. The company also warned that it may halt distributions growth for at least two years. Shares fell over 10%, which was bad news for Matthew Hulsizer’s Peak6 Capital Management, which held just under 68,000 shares of the company as of June 30.

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