Insider Weekends: Chairman Of Herman Miller Purchases 25,000 Shares

Insider buying declined significantly for a second week in a row, with insiders purchasing $88.33 million of stock compared to $183.24 million in the week prior. Selling also decreased, with insiders selling $893.42 million of stock last week compared to $975.88 million in the week prior.

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 10.12. In other words, insiders sold more than 10 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 5.33.

(Source: InsideArbitrage.com database)

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. Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE:CLR): $16.03

Executive Chairman Harold Hamm acquired 2,679,849 shares of this oil and natural gas exploration and production company, paying $17.77 per share for a total amount of $47.63 million.

We also reported on a large purchase of $73.31 million by Mr. Hamm last week when we wrote the following:

It is astounding that he would purchase shares worth over $130 million on the open market in the span of two weeks. Following these transactions, he now owns 9.62 million shares directly and an additional 283.12 million shares indirectly through a family LLC. He also owns 64,452 shares through a third entity. In total he owns 292.8 million shares or 80.19% of the shares outstanding.

In addition to his purchases, the company also bought back 8.1 million shares in Q1 2020 at an average price of $15.60 per share, representing more than 2% of total shares outstanding. The company suspended its dividend in April and also announced a suspension of its share buyback program when it reported Q1 2020 results in May.

2. W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI): $2.3

Shares of this oil and natural gas producer were acquired by 2 insiders:

• Chairman, CEO and President Tracy W. Krohn acquired 632,334 shares, paying $2.15 per share for a total amount of $1.36 million. Mr. Krohn increased his stake by 1.35% to 47,391,459 shares with this purchase.
• Director Virginia Boulet acquired 18,604 shares, paying $2.20 per share for a total amount of $40,927. Ms. Boulet increased her stake by 7.86% to 255,177 shares with this purchase.

3. Herman Miller, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLHR): $21.375

Chairman of the Board Michael A. Volkema acquired 25,000 shares of this office services and supplies company, paying $21.44 per share for a total amount of $536,000. Mr. Volkema increased his stake by 25.00% to 125,000 shares with this purchase.

Herman Miller is well-known for its high-end office furniture, and the stock has been hard hit during this COVID-19 crisis. The stock hit an all-time high of nearly $50 last December but fell sharply after reporting fiscal second-quarter results on December 18, 2019. Even though the company reported adjusted earnings of 88 cents, which were higher than the 75 cents earned in Q2 2019, and revenue grew 3.3%, investors were spooked by the 4.2% decline in new orders year over year.

The company guided to a 3% increase in sales in fiscal Q3 2020 ending on February 29, 2020, and delivered a 7.5% revenue increase when it reported results on March 18, 2020. New orders also increased 6.3% year over year, and adjusted earnings of 74 cents were also higher year over year. The stock started rebounding slowly from its crisis low of $14.39.

However, the company felt the full impact of the crisis in fiscal Q4 2020 ended May 20, 2020, with sales dropping 29.1% and new orders declining 19.4% as employees started working from home and were not buying the kind of high-end office furniture Herman Miller sells. The company reported a net loss of $2.95 per share before adjustments, and adjusted earnings came in at 11 cents a share. In anticipation of these difficult conditions, the company had drawn down its $265 million credit facility in March and suspended future dividends in April.

Mr. Volkema has served on Herman Miller’s board of directors since 1995. He was the CEO of the company from 1995 to 2004 and has been the Chairman of the Board since 2000. He purchased 25,000 shares of the company at an average price of $21.94 in May, which is the first time in ten years we have seen him buy shares on the open market. He added another 25,000 shares last week. These actions indicate Mr. Volkema appears confident the company will survive this crisis just like it did the bursting of the dot com bubble, when the stock hit a low in the mid-teens, and the housing crisis, when the stock hit a low in the high single digits.

4. The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO): $289.4

Shares of this medical device company were acquired by 2 insiders:

• President and CEO Albert G. White acquired 1,000 shares, paying $278.23 per share for a total amount of $278,230. Mr. White increased his stake by 2.47% to 41,430 shares with this purchase.
• EVP, CSO Holly R. Sheffield acquired 889 shares, paying $280.12 per share for a total amount of $249,024. Ms. Sheffield increased her stake by 169.33% to 1,414 shares with this purchase. 534 of these shares were purchased indirectly through a rollover IRA.

5. Syneos Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNH): $56.38

Director John M. Dineen acquired 8,691 shares of this integrated biopharmaceutical solutions company, paying $59.11 per share for a total amount of $513,725. Mr. Dineen increased his stake by 99.50% to 17,426 shares with this purchase.

You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.

Notable Insider Sales

1. Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS): $125.49

Shares of this cloud security company were sold by 2 insiders:

• President of R&D and CTO Amit Sinha sold 140,000 shares for $122.03, generating $17.08 million from the sale. 10,000 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.
• Chief Strategy Officer Manoj Apte sold 56,666 shares for $121.55, generating $6.89 million from the sale. 16,666 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.

2. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO): $153.91

Shares of this video games company were sold by 3 insiders:

• Chief Financial Officer Lainie Goldstein sold 50,000 shares for $144.69, generating $7.23 million from the sale.
• Chairman, CEO Strauss Zelnick sold 40,000 shares for $146.09, generating $5.84 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.
• Chief Legal Officer Daniel P. Emerson sold 5,318 shares for $150.00, generating $797,700 from the sale.

3. BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ:BGNE): $196.03

Shares of this biotech company were sold by 3 insiders:

• Chief Executive Officer John Oyler sold 53,914 shares for $199.12, generating $10.74 million from the sale.
• Director Xiaodong Wang sold 10,847 shares for $195.87, generating $2.12 million from the sale.
• CMO, Hematology Jane Huang sold 3,921 shares for $200.00, generating $784,200 from the sale. These shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.

4. MongoDB, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDB): $228.34

Shares of this general purpose database platform were sold by 6 insiders:

• Chief Technology Officer Eliot Horowitz sold 41,623 shares for $222.79, generating $9.27 million from the sale.
• President and CEO Dev Ittycheria sold 9,155 shares for $222.88, generating $2.04 million from the sale.
• COO and CFO Michael Lawrence Gordon sold 4,998 shares for $222.88, generating $1.11 million from the sale.
• Chief Revenue Officer Cedric Pech sold 2,149 shares for $227.29, generating $488,455 from the sale.
• Director Charles M. Hazard Jr. sold 2,017 shares for $226.14, generating $456,117 from the sale.
• Principal Accounting Officer Thomas Bull sold 398 shares for $222.88, generating $88,705 from the sale.

5. ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW): $422.91

Director Frederic B. Luddy sold 28,600 shares of this software application company for $415.85, generating $11.89 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through a trust.

You can view the full list of sales from this Insider Sales page.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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