Trump Victory Prompts Morgan Stanley (MS) Executives to Jettison Shares Amid Surge in Financial Stocks, Plus Other Noteworthy Insider Trading

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Previous research shows that the security purchases and sales conducted by insiders can offer an accurate reflection of the future prospects of their companies, so keeping tabs on insider trading behavior may be a key piece of information for various types of investors. After all, corporate insiders possess a broad set of skills and characteristics that can be also used to describe a value-oriented investor.

Some of these skills and characteristics include: an extensive knowledge and understanding of businesses and industries; a tendency to employ a contrarian approach to investing, which involves buying low and selling high; as well as a predisposition to maintain a long-term perspective. With that said, insider trading activity, especially insider buying, represents a strong source of information for long-term-oriented investors. As legendary investor Peter Lynch once said, corporate insiders may sell shares of their own companies for a variety of reasons such as estate planning or diversification benefits, but there is only one reason they buy – because they think the price is going up. Without further ado, let’s have a look at a set of noteworthy insider transactions reported with the SEC on Thursday.

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CEO of Battered Healthcare-Focused REIT Purchases Shares

Let’s begin our discussion with Healthcare Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE:HR), where a leading executive bought a sizable block of shares this week. President and CEO David R. Emery bought 68,000 shares on Wednesday at a weighted average price of $28.84 per share, all of which are held in a trust fund. After the recent purchase, Mr. Emery currently owns an aggregate of 794,406 shares via the trust fund.

The real estate investment trust specializing in real estate properties associated with the delivery of outpatient healthcare services across the United States has seen the value of its shares plunge by 21% in the past three months. Healthcare Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE:HR)’s shares took a hit after the news of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election emerged. There is strong uncertainty in the market on how a Trump presidency will handle the Affordable Care Act, which the president-elect harshly criticized throughout the campaign. Trump said he would replace the so-called ObamaCare with “something terrific,” an extremely detailed and ingenious strategy I must admit. Healthcare Realty Trust had investments of around $3.5 billion in 202 real estate properties located in 29 states at the end of September, totaling around 14.5 million square feet. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors was the owner of nearly 53,000 shares of Healthcare Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE:HR) at the end of the third quarter.

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The next two pages of this article discuss the fresh insider trading activity observed at four companies.

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