Gaming Stocks Dominated Insider Trading Activity Last Friday; SCYNEXIS Inc. (SCYX), Rayonier Inc. (RYN) Register Insider Buying

Two Insiders at Growing Developer of Interactive Entertainment Offload Shares

While the insider buying activity at Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) has been almost non-existent in the past several years, insider selling keeps intensifying. To begin with, Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer since March 2010, liquidated 75,000 shares on Wednesday at prices varying from $43.59 to $44.01 per share, all of which were held through the Thomas and Laura Tippl Family Trust. Mr. Tippl currently owns 511,928 shares via the aforementioned family trust. Board member Robert J. Morgado discarded 29,999 shares on the same day at a price of $43.60 per share, trimming his overall ownership to 239,783 shares.

Morris Mark, the founder of a hedge fund that seeks to invest in businesses that are positively or negatively affected by key structural economic trends, believes in the future prospects of global developer and publisher of interactive entertainment Activision Blizzard. “Interactive entertainment is a core form of leisure time for the younger demographic—action games, sports games, strategy games. As this group ages, the market for the companies that create the product will grow. We’re really interested in industry leaders,” said Mr. Mark recently. Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI)’s shares are up 14% year-to-date. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management owns 13.89 million shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) as of June 30.

Director of Slot Machine and Lottery Company Discards 100K Shares

One member of Scientific Games Corp (NASDAQ:SGMS)’s Board of Directors unloaded a hefty amount of shares last week. David L. Kennedy, Director since 2009, discarded 100,000 shares on Friday at prices that fell between $10.33 and $10.60 per share. After the recent sale, Mr. Kennedy currently owns 121,765 shares.

The shares of the developer of technology-based products and services for the gaming, lottery and interactive gaming industries are 18% in the green this year, partly reflecting the company’s freshly-announced plans to consider joint ventures, an initial public offering and other options for its fast-growing interactive-gaming unit that makes casino-style games for mobile devices. The slot machine and lottery company fell out of favor with the hedge funds followed by Insider Monkey during the second quarter, as the number of funds invested in the company fell to 21 from 24 quarter-on-quarter. Those 21 funds amassed 36% of the company’s total number of outstanding shares. Mark Cohen’s Stone House Capital owned 2.50 million shares of Scientific Games Corp (NASDAQ:SGMS) at the end of the April-June period.

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