Insiders Have Bought Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), Lennar Corporation (LEN), and More

A trust connected to an insider at Brown-Forman Corporation (NYSE:BF.B) bought over 5,000 shares of the stock between late June and early July. Possibly due to the stock’s defensive nature (its beta is 0.5), markets are assigning high earnings multiples to the owner of Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, and other alcoholic beverage brands; for example, the forward P/E is 21. The fourth quarter of Brown-Forman Corporation (NYSE:BF.B)’s fiscal year ended in April, with revenue up close to 10% versus a year earlier and net income rising as well, though we’re still not sure it’s a good buy at these prices.

Rounding out our list is farm equipment manufacturer AGCO Corporation (NYSE:AGCO), which a business connected to a member of the company’s Board of Directors has been buying for some time. AGCO Corporation (NYSE:AGCO) trades at only 10 times its trailing earnings, though recent financial results have been mixed: its last quarterly report disclosed a small decline in net income compared to the first quarter of 2012 despite a 6% rise on the top line. With many other agriculture related companies in value territory it may be worthwhile to compare AGCO Corporation (NYSE:AGCO) to its peers.

AGCO along with some similar companies could be a good value prospect, but we’re generally not too excited about the rest of these insider picks. TiVo seems dependent on some sort of special event emerging, and both Brown-Forman Corporation (NYSE:BF.B) and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) don’t look too cheap in terms of their recent performance. Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) is somewhat interesting, but we’d have to look into how sustainable its recent high growth might be and also be convinced that buying a homebuilder in the current environment is a worthwhile risk.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.