Legacy Reserves and Endurance Specialty Holdings Had Large Insider Purchases

Over the past week, two mid-cap companies saw their insiders spend more than $1 million in their stock. Legacy Reserves LP (NASDAQ:LGCY) witnessed the largest stock acquisition. This $1.8 billion market cap company is engaged in the acquisition and development of oil and natural gas properties mainly located in the Permian Basin, Mid-continent and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. On Tuesday, June 17, Cary Brown, Chairman, President and CEO, and Dale Brown, Board Director, declared the (joint) purchase of 200,000 shares of 8.00% Series B Fixed-to-Floating Rate Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Units, for $25.00 per share. Following this transaction, in which they spent $5 million, Moriah Investment Partners, an entity owned and controlled by Mr. Dale A. Brown and Mr. Cary D. Brown, holds 200,000 Series B Preferred Units.

In addition to this group, several hedge funds are betting on Legacy Reserves LP. The largest hedge fund shareholder, amongst those we track, is Alec Litowitz And Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, which last declared having increased its stake in the company by 80%, to 2.3 million shares, worth more tan $57 million.

The other company in this list is Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:ENH), a $2.3 billion market cap underwriter of specialty lines of personal and commercial property and casualty insurance and reinsurance. Over the past week, the company’s Chairman, Board Director and CEO, John Charman, spent $1.825 million on its stock.

Through 10 separate transactions, the insider acquired 49,559 shares of the company. 29,229 of them were 7.75% Non-Cumulative Preferred Shares (Series A), for which he paid prices ranging from $26.17 per share to $26.69 per share. The remaining 20,330 shares were Ordinary Shares, for which Mr. Charman paid prices ranging from $51.67 per share to $51.76 per share. In addition, the company’s CEO received 283,556 Ordinary Shares as a “Bona-Fide Gift.”

Following all of these transactions, John Charman owns 45,629 Series A shares indirectly (through two separate holdings), 660,638 Ordinary Shares (also indirectly, By Dragon Global Holdings Ltd.), and 589,927 shares, directly.

On top of his bullishness, several hedge fund managers have been upping their stakes at Endurance Specialty Holdings. The most bullish seems to be Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, which increased its exposure to the company by 21% over Q1, and now holds 897,172 shares. Others boosting their participation in the company are D E Shaw and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned