Insiders Have Bought Hess Corp. (HES), Questcor (QCOR), and More

Our database also shows a recent insider purchase at $5.5 billion market cap coating and paint manufacturer The Valspar Corporation (NYSE:VAL). In its most recent quarter The Valspar Corporation (NYSE:VAL)’s revenue and earnings both came in within 1% of their levels from the same period in the previous fiscal year. The paint segment did well- it’s possible that, as with Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW), paint sales can be seen as benefitting from a strong housing market- but this was offset by weak performance in coatings. Citadel Investment Group, managed by billionaire Ken Griffin, reported a position of about 1 million shares of Valspar in its 13F (find Griffin’s favorite stocks).

A member of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT)’s Board of Directors was buying the stock in mid June at an average price of $38.50 per share. That’s some time ago, but Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) is still trading at about those levels as markets weigh how likely it is that the FDA will speed up the process of considering its leading product candidate. The stock is up 45% year to date (and over 900% since a year ago) and is another popular short target; as a development stage company, it is currently unprofitable and the sell-side expects losses in 2014 as well.

Broadcast TV station owner Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) rounds out our list of stocks seeing recent insider buying. Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) is up over 200% year to date, and may be seen as a potential takeover target; there’s been some M&A activity in television stations and a larger peer has announced publicly that it is looking for acquisitions. However, Gray’s trailing EV/EBITDA multiple is 7.2x and if we tack an acquisition premium onto that figure the discount to the impending buyout of Belo Corp (NYSE:BLC) would be small and that company has been delivering better financial performance recently.

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