Insider buying decreased last week with insiders buying $308.73 million of stock compared to $596.73 million in the week prior. Selling on the other hand increased with insiders selling $871.89 million of stock last week compared to $767.16 million in the week prior. Despite the decline in insider buying, insider buying remains elevated as insider buying tracks below $200 million most weeks.

Sell/Buy Ratio: The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week went up to 2.82. In other words, insiders sold almost 3 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 1.29. We are calculating an adjusted ratio by removing transactions by funds and companies and trying as best as possible only to retain information about insiders and 10% owners who are not funds or companies.

Note: As mentioned in the first post in this series, certain industries have their preferred metrics such as same store sales for retailers, funds from operations (FFO) for REITs and revenue per available room (RevPAR) for hotels that provide a better basis for comparison than simple valuation metrics. However metrics like Price/Earnings, Price/Sales and Enterprise Value/EBITDA included below should provide a good starting point for analyzing the majority of stocks.

Notable Insider Buys:

1. Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR): $36.7

Shares of this operator of Burger King and Tim Hortons were acquired by 3 insiders:

  • Director Alexandre Van Damme acquired 5,200,000 shares, paying $34.30 per share for a total amount of $178.36 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Societe Familiale d’Investissements.
  • Director Carlos Alberto Sicupira acquired 583,090 shares, paying $34.30 per share for a total amount of $19.99 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by Lobstertail Corporation.
  • Director Thomas V. Milroy acquired 10,000 shares, paying $36.52 per share for a total amount of $365,200. Mr. Thomas increased his stake by 100.00% to 20,000 shares with this purchase.
  • You can view the list of recent insider transactions for Restaurant Brands International Inc. here.

    P/E: N/A Forward P/E: 28.45 Industry P/E: N/A P/S: 2.14 Price/Book: 5.01 EV/EBITDA: 14.47 Market Cap: $8.08B Avg. Daily Volume: 1,237,290 52 Week Range: $34.19 – $45.71

    2. Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD): $19.46

    Shares of this department stores chain were acquired by 2 insiders: