Noteworthy Insider Buying at This Biopharmaceutical Company and 2 Other Battered Companies

The insider buying activity at Atlantic Power Corporation (NYSE:AT) has been extremely high over the past several months, which should attract investors’ attention. To start with, Director Gilbert Samuel Palter bought 35,700 shares on Thursday at a cost of $2.07 each, enlarging his overall stake to 395,000 shares. All of these shares are held by EGADS Enterprises Inc., a bare trust of which the Director is the sole shareholder. Mr. Palter snapped up an additional 5,000 shares last Monday at a price of $2.07 per share, as well as 4,300 shares on March 10. Kevin T. Howell, another experienced member of the company’s Board of Directors, acquired 60,000 shares last week at $2.10 apiece, boosting his direct ownership stake to 120,000 units of common stock.

Atlantic Power Corporation owns and operates a fleet of power generation assets in the United States and Canada, with its power generation projects (natural gas, coal and biomass power generation projects) selling electricity to utilities and other large commercial customers predominantly under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). These PPAs are aimed at reducing the company’s exposure to changes in commodity prices, which have been quite volatile indeed. Atlantic Power’s PPAs have expiration dates that range from December 31, 2017 to December 31, 2037. In February 2016, the company’s Board of Directors, in accordance with management’s recommendation, eliminated common share dividend payments, a move that is anticipated to improve the company’s financial flexibility and strengthen its balance sheet. To be more detailed, this optional capital will be channeled towards equity and debt repurchases, with the aim of capturing value associated with available price-to-value opportunities in its publicly-traded securities. This might also point to the fact that Atlantic Power’s shares, which are down by 23% over the past 52 weeks, are undervalued relative to the company’s intrinsic value. It should be noted that the stock has advanced by 12% since the beginning of 2016, so it appears to be heading in the right direction. More importantly, Standard & Poor’s upgraded Atlantic Power’s corporate credit rating to B+ from B in February, while Moody’s upgraded it to B1 from B2 in October 2015. According to a Schedule 13D filing submitted with the SEC in February, Nathaniel August’s Mangrove Partners owns 8.18 million shares of Atlantic Power Corporation (NYSE:AT).

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