Sell Stock With Insiders: Executives Unloading Shares of These Three Companies

Financial services holding company U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) is another company that has witnessed heavy insider trading activity on the sell side recently. Terrance R. Dolan, Vice Chairman of Wealth Management and Securities Services, sold 6,150 shares earlier this week at a price of $40.86 per share and reduced his holdings to 22,815 shares. He also holds an indirect ownership stake of 5,252 shares. This move comes after U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) reported record quarterly earnings per diluted share (EPS) of $0.81 last Thursday. The company reported EPS of $0.78 in the same period last year. At the same time, the financial services company posted total revenues of $5.15 billion, compared to $4.99 billion reported a year ago. Even so, the stock is still 8% in the red year-to-date, so it is hard to stipulate what might have propelled the executive to sell shares. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is by far the largest stockholder of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) within our database, owning a stake of 85.06 million shares as of June 30.

Lastly, we will investigate the insider trading activity at Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SBH), a specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies. Executive Chairman Gary G. Winterhalter unloaded 5,805 shares on Tuesday at a price of $24.02 per unit. Earlier this month, the executive chairman sold an additional 7,082 shares for $23.85 each. As a result, Gary Winterhalter currently holds 149,634 shares. The shares of Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SBH) are currently seeking their bottom and have not been trading at such low levels since the end of 2012. The stock has lost nearly 22% since the beginning of the year, so it is quite surprising that the Executive is offloading his holdings at the current price level. The company anticipates that its business will be affected by substantial labor and rental cost inflation in the upcoming quarters, which will most likely impact its operation earnings growth. Shane Finemore’s Manikay Partners held its stake in Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SBH) unchanged during the June quarter, at 2 million shares.

Disclosure: None