Insider Buying Metric Points to Great Prospects Ahead for These 3 Companies

Baldwin & Lyons Inc. (NASDAQ:BWINB) is another company that had one of its insiders acquire stock this week. A Form 4 filing with the SEC revealed that Director Arshad R. Zakaria purchased 50,000 shares of Class A common stock on Thursday at $23.42 apiece, boosting his “Class A” holding to 53,000 shares. The Director also owns 90,803 shares of Class B common stock. The transportation insurer has seen its stock decline slightly more than 2% this year, but this stock is very thinly traded and the bid-ask spread is very wide, so most short-term oriented individual investors would avoid trading this stock. However, Baldwin & Lyons pays out a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share on its Class A and Class B common stock, which represents one of the reasons to pour some cash into the stock. The company’s third-quarter net realized investment losses added up to $2.1 million, resulting from losses reported from limited partnerships and impairment allowances on energy industry bonds, which were in turn offset by realized gains from direct trading activities. Five hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were invested in the company at the end of the third quarter, amassing 16.60% of its outstanding common stock. Prem Warsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings owns nearly 970,000 shares in Baldwin & Lyons Inc. (NASDAQ:BWINB) as of September 30.

Lastly, we will examine the insider buying activity at Continental Building Products Inc. (NYSE:CBPX). President and Chief Executive Officer James W. Bachmann purchased 2,522 shares on Monday and 2,800 shares on Wednesday at a price of $18.25 per share. After the recent purchases, the CEO currently owns 27,100 shares. The stock is up slightly more than 1% this year, and is trading at 47.37 times earnings, which is significantly higher than the average of the S&P 500 Index. The manufacturer of gypsum wallboard for commercial and residential buildings generated net sales of $108.2 million for the third quarter, down by 5.0% year-over-year. Nevertheless, the recovering housing market may result in increased demand for gypsum wallboard, and the company’s management believes that Continental Building is well-positioned to benefit from this trend. However, the competitive nature of this industry can represent a strong impediment for Continental’s future growth. Meanwhile, 23 smart money investors observed by our team were bullish on the company at the end of the third quarter. Among them, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management holds a 1.10 million-share stake in Continental Building Products Inc. (NYSE:CBPX) as of September 30.

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