Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) Registers Insider Buying, Cluster of Selling at Costco and 3 Other Companies with Insider Selling

Wholesale Club Giant Registers Cluster of Insider Selling Near 52-Week High

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) registered a cluster of insider selling earlier this week involving three different executives. To start with, Douglas W. Schutt, who stepped down as Executive Vice President in late May, discarded 14,656 shares on Monday at prices varying from $166.73 to $166.88 per share, cutting his overall holding to 40,184 shares. John D. McKay, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Northern Division and Midwest Region, sold 7,500 shares on the same day at prices that fell between $166.54 and $166.65 per share, after which Mr. McKay continues to own 58,535 shares. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Richard A. Galanti unloaded 2,400 units of common stock on Monday at a price tag of $167.08 each, cutting his ownership to 27,636 units.

Just recently, Oppenheimer analysts reiterated their “Outperform” rating on the largest warehouse retail club company and maintained their price target at $175, saying that Costco “is one of the world’s best positioned and most powerful retail chains”. Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)’s shares rose after the company posted better-than-anticipated same-store sales for June. Costco shares are trading slightly below their 52-week high of $169.73 reached in December 2015, after they have gained 3% thus far in 2016. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owned 4.33 million shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) on March 31.

This MLP Registers Some Insider Selling

Western Gas Partners LP (NYSE:WES) has witnessed increased insider selling in the past several trading sessions. James R. Crane, who has served as a director of the general partner of Western Gas Partners since April 2008, discarded 12,219 common units on Friday and 24,696 units on Monday at prices ranging from $50.00 to $50.70 per share.

The growth-oriented Delaware master limited partnership formed by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) in 2007 to acquire, own, develop and operate midstream energy assets has seen its market value gain 6% since the start 2016. Western Gas Partners LP (NYSE:WES) paid shareholders a distribution of $0.815 per unit for the first quarter, which was 2% higher than the distribution paid for the first quarter of 2016 and 12% higher than the distribution paid for the first quarter of 2015. The increased quarterly distribution equates to an annual dividend yield of 6.48%. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies owns 269,100 units of Western Gas Partners LP (NYSE:WES) as of the end of the first quarter.