Board Member at QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) Buys Shares After Billion-Dollar Apple Inc (APPL) Lawsuit, Plus Other Insider Trading

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires all officers and board members of publicly traded companies to disclose any purchases or sales of shares in their own companies. The individuals running a company usually have a competitive edge over non-insiders when it comes to trading their company’s securities, so the investment community should keep a close eye on both insider buying and selling activity.

Information is arguably the greatest commodity in the world and corporate insiders do have a great deal of information about their companies. These highly-informed individuals hold much more up-to-date and useful information with regard to their company’s business than do journalists, analysts or investors. However, it is not just the information advantage that makes insiders successful at trading securities. Their contrarian approach to investing has been the key behind insiders’ investing success. Board members and executives have exposure to the fundamentals of their business every day and can tell with great precision whether their company’s prospects are improving or deteriorating. That said, the following article will discuss several noteworthy insider transactions reported with the SEC during the last trading session of January.

We follow over 700 hedge funds and other institutional investors and by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings, we identify stocks that they are collectively bullish on and develop investment strategies based on this data. One strategy that outperformed the market over the last year involves selecting the 100 best-performing funds and identifying the 30 mid-cap stocks that they are collectively the most bullish on. Over the past year, this strategy generated returns of 18%, topping the 8% gain registered by S&P 500 ETFs.

Board Member of F.N.B. Buys Shares Ahead of Merger Completion

To start with, one member of F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB)’s Board of Directors purchased a few shares this week amid a period of seemingly low insider buying activity. Board member Laura E. Ellsworth bought 2,000 shares on Tuesday at a price tag of $14.84 each. The purchase lifted Ms. Ellsworth’s ownership to 26,834 shares.

In July 2016, the diversified financial services company agreed to buy Yadkin Financial Corp (NYSE:YDKN) in an all-stock transaction valued at around $1.3 billion. The soon-to-be combined company will have assets of almost $30 billion, as well as more than 400 banking offices throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. According to F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB)’s management, the acquisition of the North Carolina-based bank holding company and parent of Yadkin Bank is on track to close in the first quarter, while merger-related expenses “track in line with original expectations.” The company’s management also added that they have formulated a clear strategy to achieve targeted cost savings of 25%. The shares of F.N.B. have gained 26% in the past year. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors was the equity holder of 2.33 million shares of F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) at the end of the third quarter.

The next page of this insider trading article discusses the buying activity observed at one company and the insider selling at another.

Board Member at Chipmaker QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) Buys Shares After Apple Strikes with Giant Lawsuit

One director at QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) also piled up some shares at the beginning of the week. Anthony J. “Tony” Vinciquerra, director of the company since July 2015, purchased 1,000 units of common stock on Monday at a price of $53.99 per share, which are held in the Anthony J. Vinciquerra Trust. Mr. Vinciquerra currently owns 2,000 shares via the trust, as well as an additional 1,280 shares held directly.

The insider purchase comes shortly after news emerged that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sued QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) for roughly $1 billion, alleging the chipmaker charged Apple royalties for technologies Qualcomm had “nothing to do with.” The iPhone maker has been objecting to Qualcomm’s practice of charging for chips that help phones use wireless networks’ data plans and the chipmaker’s demands for a license fee based on the total price of the phones. As Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said during a conference call with analysts earlier this week: “And so we were in a situation where the more we innovated with unique features like touch ID or advanced displays or cameras, just to name a few, the more money Qualcomm would collect for no reason, and the more expensive it would be for us to innovate.” Apple also recently added that “Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined.” Qualcomm’s shares are up by 23% in the past year despite having plunged by 18% during the past month. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported owning 9.69 million shares of QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) as of the end of 2016.

Cluster of Insider Selling at Chemical Financial Corporation After Merger Completion

Six different insiders at Chemical Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CHFC) offloaded shares earlier this week, so let’s have a brief look at the most voluminous sales. To begin with, Gary H. Torgow, Chairman of the Chemical Financial Corporation Board, sold 125,000 shares on Monday at prices varying from $48.25 to $48.74 per share, cutting his stake to 104,068 shares. Thomas C. Shafer, Executive Vice President and Director of Regional and Community Banking, discarded 51,393 shares on the same day at prices that fell between $48.25 and $48.74 per share. Mr. Shafer currently owns an aggregate of 36,867 shares after the sale. David T. Provost, Vice Chairman of the Board, liquidated 175,000 shares on Monday at an average price of $48.25 per share, a sale that trimmed his ownership to 101,768 shares.

The largest banking company headquartered and operating branch offices in Michigan has seen the value of its shares gain 54% in the past year. Chemical Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CHFC)’s total loans stood at $12.99 billion on December 31, up by $275 million quarter-over-quarter and $7.27 billion year-over-year. In late-August of 2016, Chemical Financial acquired Talmer Bancorp Inc. for a total consideration of $1.61 billion (i.e. stock consideration of $1.50 billion and cash consideration of $107.6 million), an acquisition that added $4.88 billion of loans as of the merger date. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies owned around 197,000 shares of Chemical Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CHFC) at the end of September.

On the final page of this article we’ll discuss some insider selling at two other companies.

Board Member at Datawatch Sells Massive Block After Shares Surge

One member of Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ:DWCH)’s board sold a huge portion of his stake in the company this week. Board member Randy Seidl liquidated 41,232 shares on Monday at prices varying from $7.05 to $7.10 per share. Mr. Seidl currently owns an aggregate of 19,167 shares after the sizable sale.

The massive insider sale comes as the shares of the provider of self-service data preparation and fast data analytics solutions surged by 42% in the past five days after the company released its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2017. The surge reflected an increase in bookings, the improvement of bottom-line and top-line results, as well as important new customer wins. Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ:DWCH) reported total revenue of $8.23 million for the three months ended December 31, up from $7.06 million recorded a year ago. Meanwhile, total bookings for the quarter were $9.50 million, a 22% increase year-over-year. As Datawatch shares are trading near their 52-week high of $8.20, it is no surprise that insiders are offloading shares. Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, had around 98,000 shares of Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ:DWCH) in its portfolio at the end of the third quarter.

Insider Selling at Florida-Based Independent Bank After Earnings Release

There has been a significant surge in insider selling at FCB Financial Holdings Inc. (NYSE:FCB) in recent days and weeks, but most selling was related to freshly-exercised stock options. Board member Paul Anthony Novelly discarded 36,267 Class A shares on Friday at prices that ranged from $47.20 to $48.05 per share. This was the only sale that did not involve stock options. Mr. Novelly reported an indirect ownership stake of nearly 1.10 million shares following the recent sale.

The surge in insider selling comes after the third-largest Florida-based independent bank released its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2016. FCB Financial Holdings Inc. (NYSE:FCB) reported record core net income of $27.2 million for the quarter, an increase of 21% year-over-year. The core net income figure excludes certain non-recurring items such as merger-related charges, as well as gains or losses on investment securities. The Florida-based independent bank has seen its market cap rise by 43% in the past year, which does explain the insider selling to some extent. Fisher Asset Management reduced its position in FCB Financial Holdings Inc. (NYSE:FCB) by 49% during the fourth quarter to nearly 41,000 shares.

Disclosure: None