Post-Thanksgiving Week Insider Buys Dominated by Eagle Materials

Corporate insiders stepped up their pace of stock purchases in dollars for the week following a slow Thanksgiving period, but not enough to raise overall dollar buying averages or sell/buy ratios.

Insider buying for the top 1500 market capitalization stocks tracked by our Stock Reports Plus totaled only $51.9 million, compared to the four week total of almost $259 million, and the 13-week total of $910 million.  The Sell to Buy Ratio for corporate insiders stood at 20.6, and the trailing four week average stood at 12.35.  That ratio is lower than the current 13-week average of 9.97.

Only three stocks logged insider buying of $1 million or more and are listed below, including their StarMine Analyst Revision Model (ARM) scores (from a bearish score of 1 to a bullish score of 100) versus all other US stocks (see note below).

Eagle Materials (EXP.N) – about $36.1 million bought, ARM score = 98

Agco Corp (AGCO.N) – about $26 million bought, ARM score = 34

Citigroup Inc. (C.N) – about $1.4 million bought, ARM score = 97

Eagle Materials Director Laurence E. Hirsch purchased 667,575 shares bringing total common holdings to 1,226,930 shares.  The purchase comes even as EXP shares have returned about 140% in the past 12 months, and offsets a simultaneous sales of 967,575 shares (300,000 shares more than purchased) in the same week.

AGCO Director Mallika Srinivasin has been a steady buyer since September.  She is the Chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd. (TAFE) in India.  Her purchase of 359,555 shares brought her total common holdings to 3,061,260.

Michael O’Neill, Chairman of Citigroup purchased 28,200 common shares, bringing his total reported common holdings to 59,513 shares.

Note:  The ARM score ranks stocks with factors that incorporate revisions over multiple time horizons, blending EPS and non-EPS factors, and changes in buy/sell recommendations among other factors.   Among other things, ARM scores are used to help understand the probable direction of future analyst revisions and earnings surprises.