Insider Buys Top $333 Million as Icahn Exits Bausch Health Stake

By Trey Thoelcke Published Aug 21, 8:45AM EDT

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One insider scooped up a load of shares as Carl Icahn exited his stake in a medical device maker.
There were two other huge purchases and a number of notable ones.
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Insider Buys Top $333 Million as Icahn Exits Bausch Health Stake — © Neilson Barnard / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

When activist investor Carl Icahn exited his stake in a medical device maker, one insider swooped in to scoop up those shares. In addition, a beneficial owner built its stake in a producer of technology products. Another huge insider purchase came from a chief executive and other officers of a recent spin-off.

Let’s take a quick look at these notable transactions in the past couple of weeks.

Is Insider Buying Important?

What does insider buying tell us?

A well-known adage reminds us that corporate insiders and 10% owners really only buy shares of a company because they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit from it. Thus, insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors. This is all the more so during times of uncertainty in the markets, and even when markets are near all-time highs.

With the second-quarter earnings-reporting season underway, some insiders are prohibited from buying or selling shares for now. Below are some of the most notable insider purchases that were reported recently, starting with the largest and most prominent.

Bausch Health

Buyer(s): a director
Total shares: more than 37.9 million
Price per share: $6.35 to $9.00
Total cost: almost $333.7 million

Note that most of the Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE: BHC) shares in these transactions were sold by Carl Icahn and affiliates. The buyer’s stake is up to more than 70.7 million shares, or more than 19% of the provider of generic pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and over-the-counter products.

This huge insider buy boosted the stock, which is up 19.9% from a month ago, despite pulling back somewhat in the past week. Analysts don’t currently see any upside potential in the next 12 months, given their consensus price target of $7.08. Only one of seven analysts who cover the stock recommends buying shares.

Resideo Technologies

Buyer(s): 10% owner CD&R Channel Holdings II
Total shares: about 1.9 million
Price per share: $27.08 to $32.00
Total cost: over $55.8 million

Resideo Technologies Inc. (NYSE: REZI) is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based maker of technology-driven products, including temperature controls, security panels, video cameras, and more. Earlier this month, it posted better-than-expected quarter results and raised its outlook.

In the past month, the stock has risen 37.8% and recently hit a 52-week high of $33.03. The share price is 67.1% higher than a year ago, far outperforming the S&P 500. In the next year, analysts anticipate the share price rising 8.6% to their mean price target of $35.00. Both analysts who follow the stock rate it at Buy or better.

Amrize

Buyer(s): CEO Jan Philipp Jenisch and other executives
Total shares: more than 1.1 million
Price per share: $46.22 to $52.00
Total cost: over $53.8 million

Shares of this Swiss provider of building materials began trading back in June after spinning off from Holcim. Recently, Amrize Ltd. (NYSE: AMRZ) partnered with Meta to provide concrete for data center construction, and its solid second-quarter results were offset by disappointing guidance.

The stock opened at $51.35 per share on its first day of trading, and the share price has ranged from $44.12 to $56.29 so far. Analysts see 13.7% upside potential in the next 52 weeks to their mean price target of $57.34. Their consensus recommendation is to buy shares. RBC recently maintained its Overweight rating.

Note that insiders hold about 39.5 million shares (7.1%), while the largest institutional holder, Vanguard, holds 21.4 million.

And Other Insider Buying

These were not the only notable insider purchases of the past week or so. Here’s a quick look at some others.

Stock	Buyer	Shares	Price	Cost
Alkami Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ALKT)	director	almost 1.4 M	$20.64 to $22.54	almost $29.7 M
Profrac Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: ACDC)	10% owners	5.0 M	$4.00	$25.0 M
ATAI Life Sciences N.V. (NASDAQ: ATAI)	10% Apeiron Investment Group	over 8.6 M	$2.19	$19.0 M
Asana Inc. (NYSE: ASAN)	a director	nearly 1.8 M	$12.73 to $14.81	$24.9 M
Shift4 Payments Inc. (NYSE: FOUR)	executive chair	over 196,400	$81.37 to $83.99	over $16.2 M
Rapid7 Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD)	a director	almost 772,200	$18.16 to $21.32	over $15.1 M

Recently, some smaller insider buying was reported at American International Group, American Superconductor, Aramark, Blackstone, Celanese, Centene, Church & Dwight, Crocs, CRISPR Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Enphase Energy, Firefly Aerospace, Healthpeak Properties, Harley-Davidson, Lumen Technologies, Phillips 66, Sonos, Simon Property Group, Southwest Airlines, Six Flags Entertainment, Under Armour, Valvoline, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Weyerhaeuser as well.

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About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.