Insider Selling Activity That May Raise Red Flags Seen At J&J Snack Foods Corp. (JJSF), Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST), More

Next up is Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST), which has recently seen insider selling activity as well. Executive Vice President at Costco, Timothy L. Rose, divested 1,415 shares of the company at a price of $145.58. After the transaction, Timothy Rose now owns 31,503 shares valued at $4.58 million. Costco has become the second-largest retailer in the United States, with over $100 billion in sales, while its share price has increased by 2.5% since the beginning of the current year. Analysts claim that the membership-based warehouse retailer runs its operations very efficiently, which is a veritable necessity for its high-volume, low-margin business model. Even more to that, the company spends almost nothing on advertising, which might have served as one of the success factors for Costco. Having said that, it’s quite clear that the retailer is on a good run, but short-term investors should be aware of the recent insider selling at the company, as it might mean something despite its not overly significant volume. The 4.33 million-share bullish stake of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) might also be taken as an indicator of the company’s long-term prospects.

Last but not least, we’ll take a look at the insider selling activity at Group 1 Automotive Inc. (NYSE:GPI). John C. Rickel, who acts as the Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President at Group 1 Automotive, sold 9,280 shares on July 29 and July 30 at a price of $96.00. Following the transaction, John Rickel owns 158,316 shares of the company, which are currently valued at $15.35 million. The shares of Group 1 Automotive are currently trading at an all-time high, up by 11% since the beginning of the current year. Just recently, the automotive retailer announced its financial results for the second quarter of the year. The company posted record adjusted net income of $47.9 million, which marks an increase of 19.9% year-over-year. Moreover, Group 1 Automotive reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.98, which also reached an all-time record, for any quarter.  Within our database of over 700 hedge funds, Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital is the largest investor in Group 1 Automotive Inc. (NYSE:GPI), owning 1.87 million shares.

Disclosure: None