While all purchases made by corporate insiders are worth noting, some pack a bigger punch——quite literally. High dollar amount buys show that an insider, whether a company executive or institutional investor, is willing to fork over a lot of money in anticipation of a big return.
Such high volume, high conviction buys can happen across the market cap spectrum and in any sector. They can also be found in different stock exchanges from the Big Board to the over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
Here is a sample of some insider buys that have topped the $1 million level in recent days—and may be signaling investors to take a closer look.
Will Cricut Stock Keep Going Up?
NYC-based Abdiel Capital Management has been building its stake in Cricut (NASDAQ:CRCT) for some time now. Dating back to May 20th, the value investment firm has made eight separate multi-million purchases of the stock to boost its position as a top shareholder.
When a prominent hedge fund like Abdiel has such a visible display of accumulation, novice and experienced investors alike should take notice. The most recent buy occurred on July 15th with Circuit trading in the low $30’s. The buying spree began when the stock was in the upper $20’s so the firm considers the company still worth buying at higher levels. In total, Abdiel has bought nearly $80 million worth of Cricut stock over the last two months.
Cricut is a technology company that made its Nasdaq debut in March 2021. It operates a cloud-based software platform that helps millions of users create handmade goods. Think technology for Etsy users. The stock has more than doubled since its IPO, but based on Abdiel’s Capital’s interest, there may be plenty more upside.
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Is Ring Energy a Good Oil & Gas Play?
Ring Energy (NYSEAMERICAN:REI) is an oil and gas company that investors have been taking a liking to as an energy recovery play. This includes William Kruse, a majority shareholder who now owns more than 12 million shares.
On July 14th, Mr. Kruse bought 700,000 Ring Energy shares at an average price of $2.80. Two days later he bought another 600,000 shares at a lower average price of $2.59. The insider now owns about 12% of the roughly 99 million shares outstanding.
Interestingly, Mr. Kruse has been the only source of insider trading activity in Ring Energy this year. There was, however, some noteworthy insider buying in the fall of last year when the stock was available for less than $1.00 per share.
Now a micro-cap trading on the NYSE American exchange, Ring Energy is a former $20 stock that has fallen on tough times in recent years. But with oil prices recovering off their pandemic lows and the company having a good presence in the low-cost Permian region, better times may be ahead. There’s certainly one deep-pocketed insider that thinks Ring Energy can dial up some nice gains.
Why is Cosmos Holdings Seeing More Trading Activity?
Moving over to the more obscure OTC market, Cosmos Holdings (OTCMKTS:COSM) has been seeing some interesting trading activity of late. Volume picked up considerably last month amid increased chatter from social media-driven retail investors.
Helping fuel the conversation around Cosmos Holdings, CEO Grigorios Siokas has been busy building his position in the stock. After the executive went through a wave of selling, he switched into buy mode late last month. On June 25th Mr. Siokas bought a half-million shares at $6.00 soon after Cosmos had climbed to nearly $8.00. Last week he bought an additional $1 million worth of the stock to bring his total holding to $30.6 million.
The CEO owns almost half of the outstanding shares of Cosmos Holdings, so his activity has a major influence on the direction of the stock. Investors should also keep in mind that the current share price reflects a 1-for-10 reverse split that took place in November 2017. So, this highly volatile stock is not only tightly controlled by a single insider but has experienced significant shareholder dilution.
Cosmos Holdings seeks to acquire and grow a variety of pharmaceutical sourcing and distribution businesses. It has interests in many areas including branded drugs, generic drugs, health supplements, and cannabis derived products.
Earlier this month, the company inked a distribution deal with Mediprovita GbR to launch its line of Sky Premium Life products in the German and Austrian markets. The rollout will occur in two phases. Initial marketing will be focused on e-commerce via Amazon and eBay followed by a launch at various brick-and-mortar stores across the two countries.
Companies in This Article:
| Company | Current Price | Price Change | Dividend Yield | P/E Ratio | Consensus Rating | Consensus Price Target |
|---|
| Ring Energy (REI) | $1.25 | flat | N/A | 2.19 | N/A | N/A |
| Cricut (CRCT) | $5.93 | -2.0% | 3.37% | 21.18 | Reduce | $5.25 |
