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 12/24/08 |
Total Value Purchased |
52-Week Change |
|---|---|---|---|
|
GeoEye |
$17.20 |
$222,612 |
(51.3%) |
|
Hornbeck Offshore Services |
$14.31 |
$697,662 |
(68.7%) |
|
Oxford Industries |
$7.77 |
$372,487 |
(70.8%) |
|
Constellation Energy |
$24.92 |
$509,015 |
(74.6%) |
|
Hercules Offshore |
$4.45 |
$25,000 |
(81.8%) |
Sources: Fool.com, Yahoo! Finance, Form 4 Oracle, SEC filings.
Keep your eye on this rebel
When it comes to stocks, two words make me shudder: capital-intensive and government-funded. That's how we might best describe GeoEye, an Earth mapper that depends on celestial success and is a recommendation from my Rule Breakers teammate, Karl Thiel.
Yet when it comes to liking GeoEye's prospects, I just can't help myself. GeoEye is one of many rebel fliers whose executives have been buying. Insiders at content delivery specialist Akamai
Not that GeoEye needs insider buying to offer Fools a compelling investment thesis. "Whether you're updating maps, reporting on traffic, locating oil reserves, tracking weather systems, aiding disaster relief, or just looking for the nearest ATM, geographic data is big business," Karl wrote in the February issue of Rule Breakers.
How big? GeoEye produced $183.8 million in revenue for 2007 and $150.9 million over the trailing 12 months. But now, with the successful launch of its GeoEye-1 satellite, the company could monetize up to 255 million square kilometers in new imagery each year, selling principally to government agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey. Helllooooo, growth. Nice to see you again.
Those who have rated GeoEye in our Motley Fool CAPS community of 125,000 investors are mostly bullish, even if the company has lost some star power since November -- from a five- to a four-star rating:
|
Metric |
|
|---|---|
|
CAPS stars (5 max) |
**** |
|
Total ratings |
388 |
|
Bullish ratings |
374 |
|
Percent Bulls |
96.4% |
|
Bearish ratings |
14 |
|
Percent Bears |
3.6% |
|
Bullish pitches |
80 |
|
Bearish pitches |
0 |
Note: Data current as of Dec. 26, 2008.
Interestingly, about 21% of those who've rated GeoEye have also pitched it. Yet every one of those pitches is bullish. CAPS All-Star PeakStocks was a believer in August, shortly before GeoEye-1 was off the launching pad.
"Although risky, I believe that GeoEye represents an amazing risk/reward scenario, especially in light of the fact that the success rate for launches of the type that GeoEye will use for GeoEye-1's launch is over 98.5%. Once that bird flies, GeoEye's earnings and revenue will rocket and the stock will never look back," our Fool wrote at the time. Karl would agree. So would I.
And so would GeoEye's executives. Three insiders were buying shares last week, including Chief Executive Matthew O'Connell. Records show this is the second time he has bought on a dip. (The last came in May.) He'll profit right alongside common investors if (when?) the stock recovers.
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.
Read about stocks of all sizes with related Foolishness:
- Find out which executives were buying last week.
- And here's a look at those who've been selling.
- There's only one reason to sell Google at these prices.
- Find out which are the market's 10 best stocks.
- You can make money in any market.
