Southwest Gas Corporation (SWX), Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) and Sun Hydraulics Corporation (SNHY) Witness Some Profit-Taking on the Part of Insiders

The insider selling activity at Sun Hydraulics Corporation (NASDAQ:SNHY) has been intensifying in recent months, whereas insider buying has been nonexistent in the past few years. President and Chief Executive Officer Allen J. Carlson offloaded 14,466 shares on Tuesday at prices varying from $33.50 to $33.53 per share, which decreased his exposure to Sun Hydraulics to 36,247 shares.

Sun Hydraulics is a designer and manufacturer of screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds used to control force, speed and motion in fluid power systems. The company’s net sales for 2015 totaled $200.73 million, down from $227.67 million in 2014. Similarly, net income decreased to $33.14 million from $43.78 million reported for 2014. According to fresh statistics revealed by the National Fluid Power Association, the United States index of shipments of hydraulic products dropped by a massive 16% in 2015, after increasing 6% in 2014. This decline is partly reflected in the company’s financial performance for both 2015 and 2014. Sun Hydraulics Corporation’s 2015 sales to the Americas region declined 13%, while the demand in Asia/Pacific declined 9% year-on-year and demand in Europe dropped at a higher rate of 11%. The shares of Sun Hydraulics are currently trading at a forward P/E ratio of 22.7, which is significantly below the ratio of 16.8 for the Industrial Machinery sector. A number of 10 money managers monitored by our team had long positions in the company at the end of 2015, stockpiling 13.30% of its total number of shares. Shares of Sun Hydraulics are up 5% so far in 2016, but have declined by 17% in the past 12 months. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies was the owner of 449,400 shares of Sun Hydraulics Corporation (NASDAQ:SNHY) at the end of December 2015.

Disclosure: None