Recent Insider Buys: eBay Inc (EBAY), Ingersoll-Rand PLC (IR), and Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR)

An insider at $4.3 billion market cap oil and gas driller Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR) directly acquired 11,000 shares of stock on July 25th. While Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR) does have some offshore operations, it is noticeable compared to many other drilling contractors in being focused on onshore drilling. Onshore generally offers lower initial costs than offshore drilling, particularly deepwater drilling, and therefore is not as dependent on high oil prices (though currently oil prices are high enough that oil and gas companies are quite happy to drill offshore).

Pretax income from continuing operations is up compared to a year ago after adding back some special items, going by Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR)’s results from the second quarter of 2013, as management has cut costs in line with decreases in revenue. The sell-side believes that the company will earn $1.23 per share next year, which reflects an expectation that net income will pick up next year. The forward P/E is only 12 if that forecast proves correct, which is actually a premium compared to where some offshore contract drillers such as Transocean trade. Investors should note that the stock’s beta is 2.9.

As a result, even taking into account the insider purchases at these three firms, none of them seems like an excellent value at this time. Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR)’s financials don’t inspire a good deal of confidence in the company, and while Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR) might be expected to improve its business in the future investors should at least consider alternatives in the drilling space first. eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) should experience at least moderately higher earnings over the next several years, but a good deal of future growth is already priced in at current levels.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.