Director at Giant Drugmaker Buys New Stake Amid Takeover Speculations and Activist Pressure, Plus Other Insider Trading

CEO of Plains GP Holdings Buys Sizeable Block of Shares (via Offering)

The man in charge of Plains GP Holdings LP (NYSE:PAGP) snapped up a block of shares on the first day of March. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Gregory L. Armstrong bought 50,000 Class A shares on Wednesday at a price of $31.00 apiece, a purchase that boosted his ownership stake to 500,625 shares.

Plains GP Holdings LP (NYSE:PAGP)’s only cash-generating assets at the end of December consisted of around 42% limited partner and economic interest in Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE:PAA), which provides midstream transportation, terminalling, storage, processing, fractionation and supply and logistics services. Hence, the cash flows of Plains GP Holdings are solely generated from the cash distributions received on AAP units. The shares of Plains GP Holdings are 3% in the red thus far in 2017. Iridian Asset Management, founded by David Cohen and Harold Levy, owned 4.85 million Class A shares of Plains GP Holdings LP (NYSE:PAGP) at the end of the fourth quarter.

More Insider Buying at Convenience Store Operator

One member of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA)’s boardroom snapped up some shares this week as well. Board member Claiborne P. Deming bought 10,000 units of common stock on Wednesday at a price tag of $64.49 each. Mr. Deming currently owns a direct ownership stake of 246,482 shares following the Wednesday purchase.

The marketer of retail motor fuel products and convenience merchandise has seen its market capitalization rise by 6% since the beginning of the year. A number of corporate insiders at Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) purchased shares after the company released its financial results for the three and twelve months that ended December 31. Murphy USA, which markets refined products through a network of retail gasoline stores and unbranded wholesale customers, posted net income of $221.5 million for the full-year of 2016 versus $176.3 million in 2015. The company, which has almost all its owned retail stores located near Walmart stores, managed to improve the bottom-line figure despite operating in the weakest retail fuel margin environment since 2010. There were 20 asset managers from our system invested in Murphy USA at the end of December, who accumulated around 7% of the company’s outstanding shares. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC reported ownership of around 131,000 shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in its latest 13F filing.

The discussion on the final page of the article will focus on fresh insider selling observed at two other companies.