Insiders See Huge Bargains in Shares of Philip Morris (PM), Ford (F), Valeant (VRX)

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX)

Who Bought Shares: Director Richard De Schutter

How Many Shares Were Bought: 15,000 @ $21.83 per share

Date of the Transaction(s): May 15

The Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) director bought up 15,000 shares on May 15, giving him ownership of 133,383 shares of the controversial pharmaceutical company, the shares of which have rallied by nearly 50% over the past six weeks.

Insiders are not the only ones who see further upside potential in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX). After a catastrophic collapse beginning in the middle of 2015, Valeant appears to have already hit rock-bottom and is now on the rebound under the leadership of CEO Joseph Papa, who took over the company two years ago.

In the first-quarter of this year, Valeant registered organic revenue growth for the first time in three years, with the bulk of those sales (70%) being from stable products with limited risk of large-scale sales declines. Among Valeant’s branded drugs that enjoyed strong quarters were the ulcerative colitis treatments Apriso and Uceris, and the Type-2 Diabetes treatment Glumetza.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)

Who Bought Shares: Director John Lechleiter

How Many Shares Were Bought: 5,000 @ $11.17 per share

Date of the Transaction(s): May 11

John Lechleiter, one of the directors on Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s board, raised his stake in the automaker by 17% on May 11, buying 5,000 shares to lift his ownership position to 35,000 shares. Shares of Ford have declined by 9% in 2018 and have been on a fairly steady downward trajectory over the past four years.

It hasn’t been a great year for Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) on the sales front, with car sales being particularly sluggish, declining by 14% year-over-year through April. Of greater concern are Ford’s sliding SUV sales (down by 3.3%), which provide much higher margins than smaller vehicles. Ford’s profit margins slumped to just 3.7% in the fourth-quarter of 2017, down from 5.7% a year earlier, which Ford planned to rectify by hiking production of its Expedition and Navigator SUVs. Sales of those two vehicles were strong in April despite the overall SUV sales decline in 2018, with Navigator sales jumping by 135% year-over-year.

Disclosure: None