Investing

Insider Buying in First Solar and 4 Other Stocks

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Insider buying tends to draw investor attention, as it logically demonstrates confidence in future price performance, while insiders may sell for various reasons.

Peter Lynch, famous for revolutionizing retail investing during his tenure at Fidelity, once said, “Insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.”

So what insider buying activity has taken place lately? Let’s take a look, starting with the red-hot solar stocks.

First Solar (FSLR)

Enphase Energy (US:ENPH) kickstarted a solar stock rally when it reported stellar earnings results last month. First Solar (US:FSLR) followed up with a strong report too.

First Solar stock rose for 11 of the last 12 trading sessions. It’s risen for four straight weeks adding 56% during the last stretch.

On Aug. 5, Georges Antoun, Chief Commercial Officer, recently bought 9,946 shares at $100.53 a share, or just shy of a cool $1 million. He’s one of the firm’s largest shareholders, with a 37,300 stake.

Tidewater (TDW) Tidewater (US:TDW), an $850 million firm  headquartered and founded in Houston in 1956,  “owns and operates one of the largest fleets of OSVs (Offshore Support Vessels) in the industry.”

Director Robert Robotti, a longtime shareholder and a director since 2021 and who joined the board in 2021 and President and Chief Investment Officer of Robotti & Company, bought about 560,000 shares on August 9th at an average cost of $17.85.

That’s just a hair under $10 million in new purchases.

Robotti currently owns more than 2.6 million shares.

The purchase came a few days after the company reported a top- and bottom-line beat on August 4th.

Sonim Technologies (SONM)

Certainly

The smallest company on this list at just a $25 million market capitalization, Sonim Technologies (US:SONM), hit our radar as chairman Chairman Jeffrey Wang acquired 13.9 million shares at an average cost of 84 cents on July 13, and on August 8th, bought he another 5.5 million shares.

He now holds more than 19.4 million shares worth about $16.3 million on Aug. 12.

Notably, WANG did not own Sonim shares before the July purchases.

Sonim makes ultra-rugged devices, including mobile phones, industrial-grade accessories, and data and workflow applications.

Energy Transfer (ET)

Warren Buffett may like Occidental Petroleum (US:OXY) and Chevron (US:CVX), but he’s not the only one who likes energy stocks.

Shares of Energy Transfer LP Unit (US:ET) have seen some insider buying, but not by just anyone. Kelcy Warren co-founded the company in 1996 and recently stepped down as CEO in 2021. He is now the executive chairman and chairman of the board — and he’s a buyer of the stock.

As for his purchases, Warren bought roughly 2.75 million shares amid two days between August 8th and 9th.

Specifically, he bought 1.158 million shares at $10.93 on August 8th and on August 9th, he bought 1.591 million shares with an average cost of $10.94. The latter purchase edges his total up to 49.578 million shares. Indirectly, Warren owns millions of shares of ET stock.

Keep in mind that Energy Transfer LP pays out a 7.9% dividend yield at the moment.

Quanterix (QRTX)

Last but not least, we have Quanterix (US:QRTX) on our list of recent insider buying activity. Only instead of one insider, there are several insiders buying this stock. Three board members stepped in on August 10th and bought shares of Quanterix, while a fourth board member made purchases on August 11th.

Specifically, Paul Meister scooped up 47,957 shares at an average cost of about $8.60 and 186,337 shares at roughly $8.50 a share. After the two purchases, he owns just over 252,000 shares.

David Walt bought 150,000 shares at $8.62 a share, driving his total stake up to 1.43 million shares. At current prices, that stake is worth almost $15 million.

Martin Madaus bought 89,667 shares in a trust, bringing the trust’s total holdings to 254,633 shares, while Madaus also directly owns 18,443 shares.

As if that weren’t enough already, Sarah Hlavinka stepped in a day later on August 11th and bought 5,400 shares at $9.38 apiece, then 4,760 shares at roughly $10.46. The latter drove her total stake up to 26,270 shares of Quanterix.

It’s worth mentioning that Quanterix stock plunged 54.8% on August 9th following its second-quarter results. While the stock is pieceing together a solid rebound — up more than 60% from the post-earnings low — it’s still well below its pre-earnings levels near $16.50.

This article originally appeared on Fintel

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