Mild Insider Selling at PriceSmart Inc. (PSMT) and ANSYS Inc. (ANSS); Insider Buying at Three Other Companies

The information-rich or the spur-of-the-moment kind of insider trading activity has slowed meaningfully as more companies are releasing their earnings reports. Although most publicly traded companies have established blackout periods that restrict insiders from trading securities around earnings announcements, there are a few companies registering spur-of-the-moment insider trading at the moment.

Before looking into the fresh insider trading activity registered at several U.S. companies, let’s try to understand why investors are keeping tabs on insider trading metrics. To begin with, insider buying usually represents a bullish sign as corporate insiders buy their own company’s shares for only one reason: those securities are poised to go higher in the future. Meanwhile, the accurate interpretation of insider selling is much harder to achieve, as insiders can sell shares for a wide range of reasons that have nothing to do with their company’s prospects. Even so, heavy insider selling may encourage outsiders to start selling shares as well in anticipation of bad times ahead. Leaving this discussion aside, let’s have a look at some mild insider trading activity reported with the SEC on Thursday.

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Director at Emerging Nevada Gold Producer Piles Up Shares

One member of Pershing Gold Corp (NASDAQ:PGLC)’s board snapped up a small block of shares earlier this week. Douglass Scott Barr purchased 3,500 shares on Tuesday at a price of $3.33 per share. Mr. Barr currently owns an aggregate of 10,000 shares after the purchase.

The shares of the emerging Nevada gold producer advancing the Relief Canyon Mine are down a little less than 2% in the past one year. Although Pershing Gold Corp (NASDAQ:PGLC) represents an exploration stage company with no operations at the moment, the company’s project in the Relief Canyon is viewed as a low cost, low CAPEX project whose economics remain strong despite the recent volatility in the gold price. Pershing Gold’s Relief Canyon property rights cover around 25,000 acres. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC owned 282,800 shares of Pershing Gold Corp (NASDAQ:PGLC) at the end of the third quarter.

The next two pages of the article will discuss fresh insider trading observed at four other companies.

Board Member of Struggling Mistras Group Boosts Ownership Stake

A member of Mistras Group Inc. (NYSE:MG)’s Board of Directors also filed a Form 4 with the SEC on Thursday to disclose some security purchases. Nicholas DeBenedictis, a member of the seven-member Board of Directors at Mistras Group, reported the purchase of 2,500 shares on Thursday at $22.52 apiece and 2,500 shares on Wednesday for $22.75 each, all of which are held by his spouse, who currently owns an aggregate of 10,000 shares. Mr. DeBenedictis holds a direct ownership stake of 16,479 shares.

The insider buying comes shortly after the global provider of technology-enabled asset protection solutions released its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2017 earlier this year. Mistras Group Inc. (NYSE:MG)’s revenues for the three months that ended November 30 decreased by 9% year-over-year to $176.6 million. The decrease mainly reflects weak North American oil and gas market conditions, as well as the timing of customer project-related spending. Nonetheless, despite experiencing a decline in revenues, the company’s gross profit margins improved for the sixth consecutive quarter. Mistras Group’s shares are up 10% in the past year. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management added an 83,656-share position in Mistras Group Inc. (NYSE:MG) to its portfolio during the September quarter.

CEO of Low-Priced Clinical-Stage RNAi Company Purchases Shares

The man at the helm of RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ:RXII) purchased some shares on Thursday. President and CEO Geert Cauwenbergh bought 10,000 shares yesterday at a weighted average price of $0.695 per share. Dr. Cauwenbergh currently owns an aggregate of 62,583 shares after the Thursday purchase.

As the shares of the clinical-stage RNAi company have dropped by 79% in the past one year, the insider purchase discussed above represents a classical example of when corporate insiders step up and buy shares. The so-called RNAi therapies are designed to “silence” the expression of a specific gene that may be over-expressed in a disease condition. RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ:RXII)’s clinical development programs include RXI-109, deigned for the treatment of dermal and ocular scarring, and Samcyprone, designed for the treatment of a series of disorders such as warts, alopecia areata, non-malignant skin tumors and cutaneous metastases of melanoma. Earlier this month, RXi Pharmaceuticals completed the acquisition of privately-held MirImmune Inc., a company that develops next generation immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital LLC held 316,010 shares of RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ:RXII) at the end of the September.

The final page of the article focuses on discussing fresh insider selling observed at two other companies.

Insider at Warehouse Club Operator Sell Shares After Ending Streak of Comparable-Sales Declines

Although a high portion of the recent insider selling comprises selling made under pre-arranged trading plans, there were a few companies that registered spur-of-the-moment insider selling. For instance, one member of PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT)’s Board of Directors offloaded some shares this week. Board member Sherry S. Bahrambeygui sold 3,000 shares on Thursday, 2,500 shares on Wednesday and 1,000 shares on Tuesday at prices that fell between $83.50 and $85.00 per share. Ms. Bahrambeygui currently owns a total of 145,291 shares after the sales mentioned above.

The warehouse club operator has seen its market capitalization increase by 16% in the past year. PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) managed to break a trend of comparable-sales declines, as its comparable warehouse club sales for the 13-week period that ended December 4 were flat relative to the same 13-week period of the previous year. The company’s operations have been impacted by events in Colombia in recent years, mainly resulting from a major drop in the value of the Colombian peso relative to the U.S. dollar beginning in August 2014 that hit both sales and margins in that market. Meanwhile, the number of asset managers from our system invested in the warehouse club operator decreased to five from seven during the third quarter. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC reported ownership of 376,000 shares of PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) in the 13F filing for the third quarter.

Executive at Developer of Engineering Simulation Software Discards Some Shares

One member of ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS)’s management team also unloaded some shares this week. Sheila S. DiNardo, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since January 2004, liquidated 3,000 units of common stock on Tuesday at a price tag of $93.47 each. Following the recent sale, Ms. Sheila currently owns an aggregate of 24,963 shares.

ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), which develops and sells engineering simulation software and services used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a wide spectrum of industries and academia, has seen the value of its shares increase by 9% in the past 12 months. The company’s top-line figure for the September quarter grew 2.4% year-over-year despite a negative growth rate for North America, which was impacted by a partial shift in customer preference for time-based licenses and a single customer perpetual order in the third quarter of 2015 that did recur in the third quarter of the next year. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported owning around 70,000 shares of ANSYS Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS) in its 13F for the fourth quarter.

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