More Insider Selling at Apple Inc. (AAPL) as Shares Trade Near Record Highs; Plus Other Insider Trading

Eldest Son of Wal-Mart’s Founder Offloads Massive Amount of Shares

One of the wealthiest citizens of the United States and retired Chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) offloaded a great deal of shares last week. Samuel Robson Walton, the eldest son of Helen Walton and Sam Walton – the founder of Wal-Mart, discarded 2.46 million shares on Wednesday and 1.91 million shares on Thursday at prices varying from $71.25 to $72.49 per share. These shares were held in the Walton Family Holdings Trust, which owns 144.13 million shares following the recent sales. Mr. Walton also holds a direct ownership stake of 3.34 million shares.

The world’s largest retail chain recently released its fourth-quarter earnings report, sending the shares up 4% so far in 2017. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT)’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 1% year-on-year to $130.9 billion, slightly above analysts’ estimate of $130.2 billion. Meanwhile, comparable sales grew 1.8% year-on-year, ahead of the company’s guidance of 1%-to-1.5%. According to several fresh reports, Wal-Mart has been running a new price-comparison test in more than 1,200 U.S. stores, as well as held meetings with food and consumer products vendors to squeeze lower prices in an attempt to close pricing gaps with German-based discount grocery chain Aldi and U.S. rivals such as Kroger Co (NYSE:KR). The retailer anticipates suppliers to help the giant company beat rivals on head-to-head pricing. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management owned 5.14 million shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) at the end of December.

More Spontaneous Insider Selling at Apple – Should Investors Be Worried?

While corporate insiders at giant multinational companies usually offload shares via pre-arranged trading plans, a number of insiders at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) have been unloading shares on the open market spontaneously as if a huge storm is coming towards the iPhone maker. Board member Albert Gore Jr. liquidated 215,437 shares on Wednesday at prices that fell between $136.36 and $137.12 per share. Mr. Gore, the former Vice President of the United States, currently owns a total of 230,137 Apple shares. Should investors be worried about the massive sale of Mr. Gore and a number of other high-ranked executives? Not necessarily, but the recent spike in spur-of-the-moment insider selling could make shareholders nervous.

The iPhone maker has seen its market cap rise by 18% since the beginning of the year, with its shares trading roughly a dollar off its 52-week high of $137.48. There is some strong optimism around the company’s 10^th anniversary iPhone, but many market participants seem to question the sustainability of the $130-per-share level due to a seemingly saturated market in China – Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s largest overseas market. Meanwhile, analysts at BMO Capital recently reiterated their ‘Outperform’ rating on Apple and raised their price target to $160 from $142, citing iPhone portfolio changes anticipated later in 2017. More specifically, “we believe Apple, which already commands the highest selling prices in the industry, will introduce a higher-priced model (or potentially two) in September alongside the standard iterative refresh to iPhone 7,” said BMO analysts in a recent note. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway lifted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 42.13 million shares during the December quarter to 57.36 million shares.

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