Put five Fools in a room, ask them how they invest, and you'll likely get five different answers. Some like growth, others value, or small caps, or dividends, or, well, you get the picture.
Yet, while our styles differ, we all want excellent, engaged managers running the companies we own. We like it even more when these managers are also owners -- investors like you and me who, in trying times like these, are willing to buy as others sell. That's why I write this column weekly.
The week's buying
So which rich executives are buying now? Have a look, courtesy of our friends at Form 4 Oracle:
|
Company |
Closing Price 3/24/09 |
Total Value Purchased |
52-Week Change |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Comtech Telecommunications |
$22.07 |
$650,643 |
(44.1%) |
|
Diamond Foods |
$25.71 |
$54,685 |
43.6% |
|
Liberty Media Capital |
$6.49 |
$1,828,200 |
(59.1%) |
|
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers |
$16.66 |
$100,942 |
(57.1%) |
|
United Natural Foods |
$17.66 |
$108,576 |
2.2% |
Sources: Fool.com, Yahoo! Finance, Form 4 Oracle.
Should you liberate your portfolio?
Chairman John Malone's Liberty Media is a strange beast, a media conglomerate whose holdings include the QVC Shopping Network, Starz Media, positions in Time Warner
You'd think all of those assets would make for a potent combo, yet the conglomerate's segments have recently shown mixed results. Fourth-quarter revenue at Liberty Interactive, home to its QVC and DirecTV
On the other hand, Liberty Media Capital, whose interests include its Time Warner and Sprint holdings and the Atlanta Braves baseball team (see how complicated this gets?), grew fourth-quarter revenue 44% year over year. Of Malone's varied operations, it's the fast mover. It's also the unit that our 130,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community prefers:
|
Metric |
|
|---|---|
|
CAPS stars (5 max) |
**** |
|
Total ratings |
242 |
|
Percent Bulls |
95.5% |
|
Percent Bears |
4.5% |
|
Bullish pitches |
21 out of 21 |
Data current as of March 25, 2009.
"Mr. Market is hurting and this company has been understated," wrote CAPS All-Star ValueMrk last month:
This is a media giant moreover, it is a media holding company! Liberty Media is undervalued at these price multiples. The Market Cap is well under liquadation value! Liberty is another victim of forced liquidations.
Perhaps it is a victim. But Greg Maffei, Liberty Media Capital's chief executive, is buying. Liberty recently provided Sirius with $530 million in fresh capital because of the quality of the service and "the attractive terms of the securities," in Maffei's words.
These terms include a 15% coupon rate and a 40% stake in Sirius XM via preferred stock. Buying his own shares gives Maffei a bigger slice of that 40% slice, without assuming all the risks inherent in owning Sirius XM directly. A pretty good deal, if you ask me.
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.
Get the inside scoop on stocks of all sizes with related Foolishness:
- Find out which executives were buying last time.
- And here's a look at who has been selling.
- This is why you shouldn't buy stocks.
