With the stock market on fire, Scotland apparently staying in the United Kingdom and, oh yeah, the biggest IPO ever, there was plenty of excitement going around this past week. One thing is for sure, regardless of what happens this coming week, it is almost sure to be a lot more tame than the fireworks on Wall Street this past week.
The sky-high markets drew out the insider sellers this week, and why not? As we have mentioned before, inside selling does not necessarily indicate problems at a company. Often executives are overweighted in their personal portfolios to company shares. Sometimes they sell because it can be tax or estate planning related.
At 24/7 Wall Street we keep a close watch on insider selling and report it weekly to our readers. Here is this week’s top insider selling.
Select Medical Holdings Corp. (NYSE: SEM) had a monster sell hit this week. A director at the company sold 1.4 million shares of the company’s stock at prices ranging from $13.40 to $13.45. The total sell amount was a huge $19.3 million. The timing looks good as shares spent most of Friday below $13.
Bank of the Ozarks Inc. (NASDAQ: OZRK) is a top regional bank that saw some big selling. A director parted with a huge 282,900 shares of the stock at prices that ranged from $32.01 to $33.81, for a total sale amount of $9.2 million. Shares ended trading Friday at $34.86, so some money was indeed left on the table.
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Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA) owns very popular cable channels, and the stock has performed well, as acquisition rumors often float around the shares. A director at the company sold 200,000 shares at prices that ranged from $38.50 to $39.92. The total sale came to $7.8 million. The stock closed Friday at $40.50.
Total Systems Services Inc. (NYSE: TSS) had yet another director sell stock. He sold 234,431 shares at price that ranged from $31.57 to $31.58, for a grand total of $7.4 million. The company entered into a strategic alliance recently with a leading provider of point of sale (POS) solutions for mobile devices, iMobile3, to use the company’s PassMarket platform. The company will employ the platform to process transactions through the new Apple Pay initiative. Shares ended the week at $31.79.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) is one of the top online trading and brokerage companies, but that didn’t stop the CEO and a company director from parting with shares. They sold a combined 225,000 shares at prices between $32.72 and $33.13, for a total sales amount of $7.3 million. The stock closed trading on Friday at $34.03.
READ ALSO: 10 Stocks Trading Under $10 With Huge Upside Potential
Other companies that saw significant insider selling this week included Measurement Specialties Inc. (NASDAQ: MEAS), Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT), TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) and Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. (NYSE: PHX).
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