Top insider trades (Fri, Jul 17)

Happy Friday!

The CEO Watcher weekly performance update is shared just below Today’s Largest Unscheduled Trades.

Today’s Largest Unscheduled Trades

There were 124 new insider trades filed, but it was a pretty boring day. Nothing super interesting.

No insider trades were flagged as High Signal.

Today’s largest unscheduled insider trades:

• 10% Owner (THRIVENT FINANCIAL FOR LUTHERANS) at Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund, Inc. $ARDC purchased $4.00M (first-ever purchase). This increased their listed holdings by 21%.

• Director (PACE GARY W) at Cardiff Oncology, Inc. $CRDF purchased $1.00M (largest purchase ever, out of 21). This increased their listed holdings by 101%. Dip Buy: the stock was down -29% in the previous month. 1 other insider also purchased the stock in the last 30 days.

• 10% Owner (TANG KEVIN) at Boundless Bio, Inc. $BOLD purchased $155.65K (93rd largest purchase, out of 114). Rip Buy: the stock was up 76% in the previous month. This insider has purchased the stock 5 times in the last 30 days.

• Chief Executive Officer at Cardiff Oncology, Inc. $CRDF purchased $50.00K (largest purchase ever, out of 2). This increased their listed holdings by 278%. Dip Buy: the stock was down -29% in the previous month. 1 other insider also purchased the stock in the last 30 days.

• Executive Vice President at VIRCO MFG CORPORATION $VIRC purchased $34.44K (9th largest purchase, out of 17). This insider has purchased the stock 3 times in the last 30 days.

• 10% Owner (SMOLYANSKY EDWARD) at Lifeway Foods, Inc. $LWAY sold $2.14M (3rd largest sale, out of 66). Rip Sell: the stock was up 29% in the previous month. 1 other insider also sold the stock in the last 30 days.

• 10% Owner (Opaleye Management Inc.) at Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $ETON sold $1.06M (10th largest sale, out of 36). Rip Sell: the stock was up 57% in the previous 3 months. 1 other insider also sold the stock in the last 30 days.

• Principal Executive Officer at PagSeguro Digital Ltd. $PAGS sold $683.25K (first-ever sale). This decreased their listed holdings by -15%.

• Chief Accounting Officer at FB Financial Corp $FBK sold $413.21K (largest sale ever, out of 4). This decreased their listed holdings by -14%.

• 10% Owner (Scott Jonathan R) at FIRST INTERSTATE BANCSYSTEM INC $FIBK sold $403.00K (23rd largest sale, out of 49). 1 other insider also sold the stock in the last 30 days.

• See Remarks at KORN FERRY $KFY sold $251.23K (3rd largest sale, out of 3).

• 10% Owner (BIGLARI, SARDAR) at El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. $LOCO sold $175.33K (25th largest sale, out of 25). This insider has sold the stock 4 times in the last 30 days.

• CEO of Consulting at KORN FERRY $KFY sold $157.50K (first-ever sale). 1 other insider also sold the stock in the last 30 days.

• Director (Tommasino Nicholas Francis) at TSAKOS ENERGY NAVIGATION LTD $TEN sold $99.76K (first-ever sale). This decreased their listed holdings by -46%. Rip Sell: the stock was up 58% in the previous 6 months

• and more…

CEO Watcher Performance Update

A good week for the CEO Watcher Portfolio, as we outperformed the S&P by ~3%.

Overall, the CEO Watcher Portfolio has outperformed the S&P by over 25 points since we started it at the end of October.

As a reminder, the portfolio performance is actually closer to 40% (+30 points of outperformance) because a couple of months ago, I accidentally placed a large purchase meant for my personal portfolio in the CEO Watcher Portfolio and had to sell during illiquid pre-market hours, which lost the portfolio 5%.

High Signal List Performance

This week, we crossed 10,000 insider purchases since starting the High Signal List in September. Just under 200 of them have qualified as a “High Signal Trade.”

So far, the High Signal List has performed quite well, outperforming the S&P over all timeframes, with an average max return of 44% v 10% for the S&P.

It was also a good week for the High Signal List, outperforming the S&P by nearly 3 points.

Insider Sentiment

Insider sentiment remains right in the middle of the “bullish” and “very bullish” thresholds. This is where it spends 90% of its time, so nothing of note here.

S&P 500

Similar to what we saw at the end of last year, the S&P has flattened out after going straight up in April and May.

Certainly not the most bullish of charts, but most of the weakness is coming from the AI trade.

The rest of this email is for premium subscribers only.

CEO Watcher Premium

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