Stephanie McMahon Among The Insiders Selling Shares Of Their Companies

At Insider Monkey, we track the moves of both company insiders and a select group of hedge funds to identify collective buying and selling patterns, so we can profit from their knowledge and expertise. In the case of our hedge fund tracking, we also use that data to power our small-cap strategy, which has returned over 123% since its inception in September 2012, crushing the S&P by more than 65 percentage points during that time (that’s nearly double the returns!) (see the details).

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE), NYSE:WWE,

As mentioned, we also track the latest moves by company insiders, paying particular attention to insider purchases. Though the correlations aren’t as strong as they are with hedge fund activity, we can still gain some valuable insight into stocks based on the activity of insiders in those companies. We’ve identified three companies with notable insider sales on August 11, and will take a look under their hoods in this article. The companies are World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE), Gentherm Inc (NASDAQ:THRM), and Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL).

We’ll start with World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE), whose Chief Brand Officer Stephanie Levesque, better known by her maiden name Stephanie McMahon, has sold off over 105,000 shares this week of the company her father Vince and mother Linda founded in 1980. The sales by Stephanie, a former WWF (as it was known at the time) Women’s Champion, who remains an entertainment personality for the company’s wrestling programming, are the first by her since early 2014. Basil Devito, the company’s Senior Advisor of Business Strategies has also sold 4,100 shares this week. It’s not surprising to see insiders selling, as WWE has had a strong year on the stock market, gaining over 68% year-to-date. While shares are still down by about 50% from their early 2014 high around the time the company launched its home streaming service WWE Network, the market seems to finally be warming up to the service after the disappointment of missed subscriber targets.

We reported in early July that Wells Fargo initiated coverage on WWE with an ‘Outperform’ rating and $22 to $24 price target range, with the investment firm citing the WWE Network as being under-appreciated by the market. Since then, WWE has soared to nearly $21, gaining over 33%. Hedge funds have liked what they see in the company and its growth potential, with the number of hedge funds invested in the stock and the value of their holdings both increasing by 27% during the first quarter. Of the funds that have reported their June 30 positions, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors holds the largest stake in World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) among the funds we track, with 358,400 shares held between Gabelli Funds and GAMCO Investors.

Let’s move from the squared circle to the hospital room, a room that Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL) helps make more efficient with its healthcare solutions and management systems. The company’s EVP of Field Operations, Christopher Drew sold 25,000 shares on August 11 at $35.89 per share. A day earlier, EVP and General Counsel Dan Johnston sold 7,700 shares total in three transactions at an average price of about $36.05. While Omnicell is up by over 8% this year, the sales don’t necessarily come at an ideal time, as shares have lost over 10% since late July when the company announced its second quarter results, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate on both the top and bottom lines by a notable amount. The miss comes after two big earnings beats in the prior two quarters, which propelled the stock to a 35% gain between the middle of October 2014, and the middle of April of this year. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management holds 550,000 shares of Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL) as of June 30.

Finally, we move from the hospital to the factory floor, where Gentherm Inc (NASDAQ:THRM) churns out thermal comfort products, primarily for the automotive industry. Three different company insiders have sold shares this week, with President and CEO Daniel Coker selling 43,170 shares in two transactions, Director Francois Castaing selling 5,000 shares, and CFO, VP of Finance, and Treasurer, Barry Steele selling 6,528 shares. Gentherm Inc (NASDAQ:THRM) is in the midst of another strong year, up by more than 32%, after gaining more than 150% during 2013 and 2014. The automotive thermal system market is anticipated to grow rapidly throughout the rest of the decade, which suggests there could be plenty of growth yet found in the shares of Gentherm. Drew Cupps’ Cupps Capital Management has a position of 266,635 shares of Gentherm as of June 30, having sold off 17% of its position in the second quarter.

Disclosure: None