SeaChange (SEAC) Among 3 Companies Whose CEOs Bought Shares This Week

Citizens’ CEO Made a Small Purchase of Shares This Week

The man in charge of Citizens Inc. (NYSE:CIA) also bought some shares this week. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick D. Riley bought 1,331 Class A shares on Wednesday at $7.48 apiece, boosting his ownership to 535,864 shares. It is not entirely clear what caused the company’s share price to jump by nearly 10% on Wednesday, but the CEO’s bullish move might represent at least part of the explanation.

Citizens Inc. operates as an insurance holding company whose main insurance operations involve issuing and servicing ordinary whole life insurance and endowment policies sold to foreign residents in Latin America and the Pacific Rim; ordinary whole life insurance policies to middle-income households in the Midwest, Mountain West, and Southern United States, as well as final expense and limited liability property policies to middle- and lower-income households in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Citizens Inc. generates revenue mainly from the following three sources: premiums earned for insurance coverages, net investment income, and net realized capital gains and losses. The company’s premium income derived from life, accident and health, and property insurance sales grew by 3.2% in 2015 to $187.69 million. The increase was mainly driven by higher renewal premiums, which increased by 5.1%. New sales, also known as first-year premiums dropped by 2.7% in the life segment in 2015, after increasing by a whopping 13.2% in 2014. It is believed that the decrease in new sales, which mainly occurred in the final quarter of 2015, was related to the change in the company’s marketing leadership to Rick Riley from his brother Randall Riley (both are sons of the company’s founder Harold E. Riley) in October 2015.

Shares of Citizens Inc. have gained 12% year-to-date, extending their one-year gain to 36%. Only two hedge fund vehicles monitored by our team had stakes in the company at the end of 2015. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC owned 51,952 shares of Citizens Inc. (NYSE:CIA) at the end of 2015.

Disclosure: None