📈👀 Top CEO Trades this Week (July 28)

This is CEO Watcher. We are tracking the trades of the CEOs with the best historic returns so we can buy their stock when they do.

This week we found:

• Former Executive President buys nearly $400k

• Director at $LEN with 550% all-time returns buys the stock

• 4 insiders at $RILY buy over $5M of stock

👀 Top Insider Trades this Week

🥇 James Ayers - Former Executive President of the Board at FBK (link)

He bought $FBK back in the 1980s when it was a tiny bank and turned it into a billion-dollar bank. He retired last year, but just made an open market purchase of the stock earlier this week. He started buying the stock consistently in April after the Silicon Valley Bank disaster and this is his 8th purchase since then.

Historic Returns and Win Rate

• Overall: 13% returns with a 91% win rate (11/12 trades)

• 1-year: 73% returns with a 100% win rate (3/3 trades)

• 90-day: -1% returns with a 71% win rate (5/7 trades)

Purchase Data (this week)

• Total Amount Purchased: $393,600

• Purchase Price: $32.80

• Current Price: $34.80 (+6%)

Rating

• Rating: 8

• Why: This purchase size is an average to slightly below average purchase size for him (though it is the biggest purchase in his last 5 purchases). His returns are dragged down by a big purchase he made last December when he bought almost $2M in stock at $39/share. Obviously, the banking crash in March/April hit the stock hard, so he is underwater on that trade. However, he still has a killer win rate, has been buying up the stock for the last couple of months, and has fantastic 1-year returns.

🥈 Amy Banse - Director at $LEN (link)

Also a director at Adobe (where she has bought the stock 4x with returns of 1,264%, 681%, 193%, and 5%), she just made her second purchase of $LEN. Her other purchase was a month ago when she bought $20k worth of the stock at $121.

Historic Returns and Win Rate

• Overall: 550% returns with a 100% win rate (6/6 trades)

• 1-year: 40% returns with a 100% win rate (3/3 trades)

• 90-day: 20% returns with a 100% win rate (3/3 trades)

Purchase Data (this week)

• Total Amount Purchased: $99,871

• Purchase Price: $126.42

• Current Price: $127.35 (+1%)

Rating

• Rating: 7

• Why: Her returns and win rate are obviously incredible, but I’m keeping this down at a 7 because her returns are buoyed by 3 killer purchases of Adobe stock she made in 2013, 2014, and 2017; this purchase is smaller than those three Adobe trades (they were between $115k and $200k); and $LEN is actually up quite a bit over the last year (+50%), so she isn’t buying up a dip.

🥉 4 Insiders Buy $RILY (link)

B. Riley Financial did a $100M public offering to raise money “for general corporate purposes, including funding future acquisitions and investments, repaying and/or refinancing indebtedness, making loans and/or providing guaranty or backstop commitments to clients in the ordinary course of business, making capital expenditures and funding working capital.”

4 insiders (co-CEO, co-CEO, CEO of B Riley Securities, and a Director) decided to participate and buy ~$5M.

Previous Group Purchases

• Around March 15th, two Directors, the co-CEOs, and the President purchased ~$2M of stock at ~$31/share when the stock fell due to the banking crisis. The stock is up 77% since then.

• At the beginning of May 2022, 3 Directors, the President, one of the CEOs, and another executive bought ~$13.5M at ~$46/share. The stock continued to fall into the $ 20s over the next 9 months before recovering back up into the mid-50.

• In mid-January 2021, the co-CEOs, a President, and a Director bought ~$6M of stock at $46/share. The stock climbed into the $80s over the next year.

Purchase Data (this week)

• Total Amount Purchased: $5,049,935

• Purchase Price: $55

• Current Price: $55.82 (+1.5%)

Rating

• Rating: 7

• Why: This is a public offering so the company can raise $100M which hurts the score a little bit, but the executives have a history of making group purchases that work out pretty well and $5M is a sizable purchase from the insiders.

💰 Other Insider Trades

Dustin Moskovitz - CEO at $ASAN (link): As you know from previous emails, Dustin has been gobbling up over $1B of Asana stock over the last couple of years. He is WAY underwater on these purchases but continues to buy. The stock is up almost 100% this year, so it may finally be turning around. This week, he purchased another $3.5M at $22.20/share.