Insiders Have Bought United States Steel Corporation (X), Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX), and More

IBERIABANK Corporation (NASDAQ:IBKC) saw one of its own Board members purchase 10,000 shares of the stock. The regional bank, which operates in parts of the southern United States (based primarily in Arkansas and Louisiana), is currently valued at a small discount to the book value of its equity with a P/B ratio of 0.9. It hasn’t done quite as well on the earnings front recently, and as a result its trailing P/E is more than 20, but the sell-side expects the business to improve over the next couple of years.

The CEO of Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) purchased over 6,200 shares on May 8^th at an average price of $16.49. While Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR)’s market cap is less than $200 million, over 80,000 shares are trade per day making for over $1 million in daily dollar volume. Real estate investment trusts receive favorable tax treatment conditional on distributing a large share of taxable income to shareholders. As a result, REITs often pay high yields; Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR)’s is almost 7% at current prices. The company focuses on retail and office properties in the urban Sunbelt.

There’s certainly some risk to Whitestone’s business, and income investors should be sure not to have too much of their capital in REITs, but the stock does look like it might be worth further research on the basis of its dividend. Each of the two banks has something of a value case, but we’d still avoid them as BB&T Corporation (NYSE:BBT)’s business hasn’t been looking that great and IBERIABANK Corporation (NASDAQ:IBKC) is not as cheap as many other banks from an earnings perspective. The other two stocks we’ve tracked here don’t seem to be great values, although as we’ve noted we are curious about the level of insider interest in steel and met coal.

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