Eye-Catching Insider Buying Witnessed at Tempur Sealy (TPX) and 2 Other Companies

Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE:TPX) has also witnessed two top executives pile up shares over the past few trading sessions. Richard W. Anderson, Executive Vice President and President of North America, snapped up 9,000 shares on Monday and 8,430 shares on Tuesday at prices that ranged from $56.36 to $57.83 per share. Following the recent transactions, Mr. Anderson currently owns 52,162 shares. Moreover, President and Chief Executive Officer Scott L. Thompson bought 22,911 shares on Friday and 12,089 shares on Monday at prices that fell between $56.69 and $58.49 per share, boosting his equity ownership to 104,686 units of common stock.

Tempur Sealy International, the largest bedding provider in the world, develops and manufactures bedding products under the highly-known TEMPUR, Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Sealy Posturepedic, and Stearns & Foster brand names. Tempur Sealy’s stock has lost 24% over the past six months or so, presumably because of serious issues with the Danish Tax Authority (SKAT). The mattress manufacturer has received income tax assessments from SKAT, which could result in a significant payment being owed; the cumulative total tax assessment, including interest and penalties, amounts to $199.6 million. Although mattresses were previously seen as invulnerable to the fast-increasing e-commerce space, the commonplace sales practices involving these products has evolved quite significantly lately. Numerous online sellers have started to sell mattresses, which are shipped to the doors of customers in small-sized boxes. Tempur Sealy has not eschewed from capitalizing on this newly-emerged trend, as the company recently announced the debut of a new offering in the e-commerce space, called Cocoon by Sealy.

Tempur Sealy generated net sales of $3.15 billion in 2015, up from $2.99 billion registered in 2014. The company’s 2015 net sales grew by 9.4% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. Meanwhile, Tempur Sealy’s adjusted net income for 2015 totaled $199.9 million or $3.19 per share, up from $164.6 million or $2.65 per share reported for 2014. These figures provide a general picture of the seriousness of the company’s tax issues with SKAT. The stock is priced at 12.9-times expected earnings, slightly above the forward P/E ratio of 10.5 for the Household Appliances industry. James Crichton’s Hitchwood Capital Management reported owning 1.15 million shares of Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE:TPX) in its latest quarterly 13F.