It's a new week, which means it's time to check the most interesting insider purchases. After reading through numerous filings using insider tracking tool Form 4 Oracle, here are my top five today.

The week's buying

Company

Closing Price 9/23/08

Total Value Purchased

52-Week Return

Conseco (NYSE:CNO)

$5.63

$1,516,798

(63.8%)

Landry's (NYSE:LNY)

$14.70

$4,925,097

(47.6%)

Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU)

$23.33

($5,906,549)

(40.7%)

MVC Capital (NYSE:MVC)

$15.19

$279,990

(12.9%)

Prospect Capital (NASDAQ:PSEC)

$12.98

$1,459

(16.5%)

Sources: Fool.com, Yahoo! Finance, Form 4 Oracle, SEC filings.

No cap on MVC Capital
You know when stock-picking matters most? Now. When the bear claws and bites your portfolio till it bleeds a deep, ugly shade of red. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be picking stocks. Sometimes it's enough to own the best stock pickers.

Welcome to week 2 of our look at asset managers. This time, Prospect Capital, a Hidden Gems Pay Dirt pick, gives way to MVC Capital, a member of the more senior and better-performing Hidden Gems service. The stock has a very strong following in our 115,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community:

Metric

MVC Capital

CAPS stars (5 max)

****

Total ratings

851

Bullish ratings

841

Percent Bulls

98.8%

Bearish ratings

10

Percent Bears

1.2%

Bullish pitches

93

Bearish pitches

1

Data current as of Sept. 23, 2008.

Discount prices will do that. The net asset value (NAV) of MVC's portfolio, $17.19 per share as of Aug. 31, is up 14.2% over the past year. Shares of the common stock, which trade for a 12% discount to NAV at present, are down nearly that much over the same period. Crazy.

"As the market begins to slowly awaken from this un-nerving experience, there is still real business being conducted on Wall Street and that takes Money," wrote CAPS investor Budsworth in May. "Companies like MVC help to keep many of these businesses in the green-backs so they can keep their doors open and their show-rooms full of inventory."

Agreed. And yet net asset value isn't a concrete number. Rather, it is the estimated per-share market value of all securities and cash held after subtracting liabilities. Here, the danger is that MVC's valuations of its illiquid securities held -- positions in privately held companies -- are too aggressive. Nanotech venture capitalist Harris & Harris (NASDAQ:TINY) faces the same problem. But asset managers that routinely overestimate the worth of their investments usually don't get very far, and MVC has been in business since 1999.

To look at management's commitment is to wonder whether MVC's opportunity has ever been richer. Chairman Michael Tokarz and director Robert Knapp, combined, have bought nearly $280,000 in shares over the past week. I think they've got it right; MVC joins my CAPS portfolio today.

Yoo hoo, Lulu
When my wife and I visited a local Lululemon store this weekend, we weren't impressed. Neither the staff (who were wonderful) nor the selection (which was also strong) was the problem. The store was just ... empty. Not what an owner like me enjoys seeing.

I feel somewhat better today because new CEO Christine Day is buying. She added 4,000 shares to her position on Monday. Unfortunately, she's the only one. Founder Chip Wilson sold more than $6 million worth of stock last week. Chief Financial Officer John Currie just cashed in $1.3 million worth of shares acquired via options.

The combination is disheartening and I'm weighing a sell. That doesn't mean I've soured on the business completely; retail niches can be extremely profitable and, to me, Lululemon is Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) for the terminally athletic. I'd just like the stock a lot more if Day weren't out on a ledge, and if more customers were shopping at her stores. You're on notice, Lulu.

There's your update. See you back here next week when we dig through more insider filings in search of the next home run stock.

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