Lands’ End Inc. (LE), Nike Inc. (NKE) and One Low-Priced Biopharmaceutical Company Register Insider Buying

The World’s Largest Maker of Athletic Gear Has Board Member Buy Some Shares

Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) also had one Board member buy shares this past week. John C. Lechleiter, who was appointed to the company’s Board of Directors in June 2009, snatched up 1,000 Class B shares on Friday at a price tag of $55.09 each. After the recent purchase, Mr. Lechleiter currently owns 23,682 Class B shares.

The world’s largest maker of athletic gear has seen its market capitalization decline by 11% since the start of 2016. Just recently, Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) announced that co-founder Phil Knight retired as Chairman of the company’s Board and would continue to serve as Chairman Emeritus. At the same time, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s CEO, Tim Cook, a long-serving member of the athletic gear marker’s board became the lead independent director. At the end of June, Nike released its financial results for its fourth quarter and full year that ended May 31, showing that fourth-quarter revenues jumped by 6% year-over-year to $8.2 billion. Meanwhile, fiscal 2016 revenues rose 6% year-over-year to $32.4 billion, up an impressive 12% on a constant currency basis. Analysts at Jefferies recently cut their price target on the athletic retailer to $65 from $67 and reiterated their “Buy” rating on the stock, citing market share pressure in the first half of fiscal 2017. Jefferies anticipate sustained improvement in the North America sector of the business, further saying that Nike is a “winning stock”.

The number of asset managers from our database with long positions in Nike climbed to 64 from 63 during the first quarter of 2016, whereas the overall value of those positions shrunk to $3.65 billion from $4.48 billion quarter-on-quarter. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital reported owning nearly 12.00 Class B million shares of Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) in its latest 13 F.

Low-Priced Biopharmaceutical Stock with Insider Buying

The man in charge of Hemispherx BioPharma Inc. (NYSEMKT:HEB) bought several blocks of shares over the past several trading sessions. President and CEO Thomas K. Equels snapped up 59,000 shares on Wednesday, 56,000 shares on Thursday and 56,000 shares on Friday at prices ranging from $0.118 to $0.12 per share. After the recent purchases, Mr. Equels currently holds an ownership stake of 1.66 million shares.

The shares of the specialty pharmaceutical company may be delisted from trading on the NYSE MKT should the company fail to demonstrate significant price improvement through mid-September. However, Hemispherx BioPharma Inc. (NYSEMKT:HEB) plans to seek approval of a reverse stock split at its annual meeting of shareholders, which is expected to take place in the middle of August. The company’s flagship products include Alferon N Injection, a genital warts treatment, and the experimental therapeutic Ampligen. Just recently, the Philadelphia-based biotechnology company obtained intellectual property rights for its two products held by its former CEO, Dr. William A. Carter. More importantly, the company recently implemented a series of austerity measures, including the reduction of executive compensation and elimination of non-essential contractors and personnel. Hemispherx BioPharma’s new strategy involves seeking licensing deals or development partnerships with other biopharmaceutical firms to advance the development and market reach of the two products.

There were a mere three money managers tracked by our team with stakes in the biopharmaceutical company at the end of the first quarter. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies had 1.85 million shares of Hemispherx BioPharma Inc. (NYSEMKT:HEB) among its holdings at the end of March.

Disclosure: None