Insiders Have Bought Ulta Salon, Churchill Downs, and More

Filings with the SEC have shown that both the CEO and CFO of Rouse Properties Inc (NYSE:RSE), a real estate investment trust focused on shopping malls which was spun out from General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) a little over a year ago, bought shares at prices of about $16.90 per share. Consensus insider purchases are a stronger bullish signal than only one insider buying (learn more about consensus insider purchases). Even though many REITs pay high dividend yields due to IRS requirements, that is not the case for Rouse: its yield, going by the current price and recent quarterly payments, is 1.7%.

SCBT Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:SCBT) had one of its Board members invest nearly $100,000 in the stock on March 21^st; he now owns over 8,000 shares of the $860 million market cap Southeastern regional bank (at 50,000 shares traded per day and a price over $50 per share, there is sufficient daily dollar volume for most investors). Many regional banks have been doing well recently, and SCBT is up 52% in the last year. Earnings increased 22% in the fourth quarter of 2012 versus a year earlier. The stock carries trailing and forward P/Es of 25 and 13, respectively.

A member of Atlantic Power Corp (NYSE:AT)’s Board of Directors directly purchased 12,000 shares on March 19^th, nearly doubling his holdings of the stock. The electric utility’s market capitalization is only about $620 million, but on average over 1.4 million shares are traded per day and the stock price is above $5. Atlantic Power has been paying monthly dividends between 9 and 10 cents per share for two and a half years, making for an annual yield of 7.3%. It might be a good prospect for income investors.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.