Clusters of Insider Buying at Battered Retailer of Storage Products and Struggling Trucking Firm, Plus Other Insider Trading

The term “insider trading” is usually associated with illegal conduct, but the term refers to both legal and illegal conduct. The legal kind of insider trading is when corporate insiders such as officers, directors and employees buy and sell securities in their own companies. As corporate insiders must report their trades to the SEC within a two-day period, outsiders can log into the regulator’s database and collect free insider trading data.

Nonetheless, the process of skimming through hundreds of thousands of trades and Form 4 filings annually seems quite cumbersome for retail investors. It would be better to let financial services websites such as Insider Monkey rummage through the abundance of Form 4 filings and present the most relevant data to investors. Our team pays particular attention to insider buying when examining insider trades, though spontaneous insider selling is not ignored by any means. As well-known investor Peter Lynch once said: “Insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.” Having this in mind, let’s have a look at a group of noteworthy insider transactions reported with the SEC on Thursday.

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Cluster of Insider Buying at Battered Retailer of Storage and Organization Products

As mentioned in our previous insider trading articles, clusters of insider buying represent the most bullish signals within the insider buying space. Hence, let’s have a quick look at a cluster of buying observed at Container Store Group Inc. (NYSE:TCS). To start with, Chief Executive Officer Melissa Reiff snapped up 18,750 shares on Thursday at $3.92 apiece, a purchase that boosted her stake to 489,096 shares. Board member Robert E. Jordan bought 10,000 shares on the same day at a weighted average price of $3.95 per share. Mr. Jordan currently owns a stake of 30,000 shares after the purchase. Jodi L. Taylor, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, purchased 5,000 shares on Thursday at prices ranging from $3.93 to $3.94 per share, lifting her overall holding to 95,109 shares.

The shares of the specialty retailer of storage and organization products embarked on a disturbing downtrend in mid-December and got hammered in January due to weakness in the sector and analyst downgrades. As department-store chains started releasing disappointing holiday sales results in early-January, Container Store Group Inc. (NYSE:TCS)’s shares faced strong downward pressure. Several days ago, the retailer released its own financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2016 ended December 31, which hit the company’s shares yet again. Container Store Group revealed that comparable store sales for the December quarter decreased by 3.9% year-over-year, as holiday department sales contributed significantly to the drop. The retailer’s shares are 33% in the red year-to-date. Royce & Associates, founded by Chuck Royce, owned 158,200 shares of Container Store Group Inc. (NYSE:TCS) at the end of September.

The second page of this article discusses the fresh insider buying at two other companies.

Corporate Insiders at Struggling Trucking Firm Buy Shares After Share Price Plunges

Four different corporate insiders at USA Truck Inc. (NASDAQ:USAK) increased their equity stakes earlier this week. To begin with, Robert A. Peiser, Chairman of the Board, purchased 6,000 shares on Wednesday at prices that fell between $7.31 and $8.10 per share. The shares are held in a trust fund that currently owns 27,272 shares. Mr. Peiser also holds a direct ownership stake of 30,513 shares. James Allie Craig, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President, bought 29,000 shares on the same day at an average price of $7.85 per share, lifting his ownership to 82,442 shares. Board member Alexander David Greene bought 10,465 shares on Wednesday and 4,535 shares on Thursday at prices varying from $7.84 to $8.23 per share. Mr. Greene currently owns a total of 21,006 shares following these transactions. Last but not least, President and CEO James D. Reed snatched up 380 shares on Thursday at $7.92 apiece, which raised his stake to 16,046 shares.

USA Truck Inc. (NASDAQ:USAK), which provides truckload and logistics services to various industries, has seen its market capitalization plunge by 48% in the past year. The shares of the capacity solutions provider took a serious hit recently after the company released disappointing financial results for the fourth quarter. USA Truck reported operating revenue of $103.1 million, down from $118 million generated in the same period a year earlier. Additionally, the company reported a net loss of $3.8 million, compared to net income of $3.9 million for the final quarter of 2015. In May 2014, a pair of activist firms – Baker Street Capital Management and Stone House Capital Management – reached an agreement with the trucking firm, which gave them two board seats. Should USA Truck fail to achieve a turnaround in the foreseeable future, a new activist campaign could eventually emerge. Mark Cohen’s Stone House Capital had 835,000 shares of USA Truck Inc. (NASDAQ:USAK) in its portfolio at the end of the third quarter.

Board Member at Expanding Community Bank Buys Shares

One member of Bay Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:BYBK)’s board purchased a block of shares this week. Independent director Pierre Abushacra bought 15,000 shares on Wednesday at a price of $7.63 per share. Mr. Abushacra currently owns an aggregate of 26,603 shares after the recent purchase.

The savings and loan holding company for Bay Bank has seen the value of its shares advance by 12% since the beginning of the year. In early-July, Bay Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:BYBK) consummated its merger with Hopkins Bancorp Inc., the parent company of federal savings bank Hopkins Federal Savings Bank. The company’s net loan growth during 2016 was favorable, particularly after the completion of the Hopkins merger. Bay Bancorp reported net income of $1.75 million for 2016, compared to $1.93 million reported a year prior. The 2016-figure included one-time merger integration expenses, as well as a bargain purchase gain associated with the aforementioned merger. With the Hopkins merger, Bay Bank represents the fifth-largest community bank headquartered in the Baltimore region based on deposit market share. Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital owned exactly 1 million shares of Bay Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:BYBK) at the end of September.

On the final page of the article, we’ll discuss the insider selling observed at two companies.

Executives at Goldman Sachs Offload Shares Amid Increased Deregulation Expectations

Two executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) trimmed their equity stakes this week. To start with, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer David M. Solomon discarded 4,165 shares on Tuesday at prices ranging from $240 to $240.21 per share, cutting his direct ownership stake to 177,594 shares. Mr. Solomon offloaded an additional 2,085 shares on the same day, shares held through trusts. Pablo J. Salame, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs Group and Global Co-Head of the Securities Division, discarded 16,185 shares on Tuesday at prices that fell between $240 and $240.46 per share, a sale that reduced his ownership stake to 146,133 shares.

As President Donald Trump plans to kick off the process of undoing parts of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, banks are anticipated to boost dividends and buy back shares. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve is anticipated to keep raising interest rates, with very few banks expected to do better than Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) in this environment according to Barron’s. More importantly, should fiscal stimulus and lower corporate taxes increase economic activity, Goldman Sachs appears well-positioned to benefit from its position as the leading global advisor in M&A. Goldman Sachs shares have gained an impressive 71% in the past year. Edgar Wachenheim’s Greenhaven Associates reported ownership of 3.74 million shares through the current round of 13 filings.

CEO of Electronic Bond Trading Firm Offloads Shares

The man in charge of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) also discarded some shares this week. Chairman and CEO Richard M. McVey, who founded MarketAxess in April 2000, sold 8,636 shares on Tuesday, 506 shares on Wednesday and 9,687 shares on Thursday, at prices ranging from $187.50 to $190.06 per share. After this series of transactions, Mr. McVey currently owns an aggregate of 1.06 million shares.

The shares of the electronic bond trading firm have gained 77% in the past 12 months, which makes the insider selling discussed above a normal occurrence. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, recently reported that the monthly trading volume on its platform reached $121.4 billion. The company’s overall trading volume for 2016 totaled $1.3 trillion, up by 33.7% year-over-year. Therefore, should the monthly trading volume for the remaining months of 2017 be in excess of the figure reported for January, MarketAxess will achieve yet another record in annual trading volume. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management owns 22,364 shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) as of the end of December.

Disclosure: None