Put five Fools in a room, ask them how they invest, and you'll likely get five different answers. Yet while our styles differ, we all want excellent, engaged managers running the companies we own -- all the more so if they're willing to invest in their own shares, even in trying times like these.
The week's buying
So which rich executives are buying now? Here's what our friends at Form 4 Oracle say:
Company |
Closing Price 4/22/09 |
Total Value Purchased |
52-Week Change |
---|---|---|---|
Charming Shoppes |
$2.86 |
$36,130 |
(36.6%) |
Hansen Medical |
$3.99 |
$3,550,011 |
(75.7%) |
Suffolk Bancorp |
$25.81 |
$110,630 |
(17.2%) |
The Greenbrier Companies |
$7.40 |
$640,812 |
(66.8%) |
Valeant Pharmaceuticals |
$17.50 |
$30,006 |
33.2% |
Sources: Fool.com, Yahoo! Finance, Form 4 Oracle.
Another intuitively obvious buy?
You've heard it from us before. If you're going to swing for the fences in your investing, you'll strike out from time to time. We've certainly had our share of misses at Motley Fool Rule Breakers. For a time, Hansen Medical seemed like one.
But is it? Huge insider buys over the past week suggest otherwise. Five separate executives and board members poured more than $3.5 million into the company, including a $300,000 cash commitment from CEO and co-founder Dr. Frederic Moll.
Moll, also a co-founder of Intuitive Surgical
But there's a catch. Hansen yesterday closed a follow-on offering of 11.7 million shares that's expected to net $35.1 million in proceeds net of expenses. A portion of the buying came from board members who participated in the offering.
Still, I'm impressed that they're buying at all. The recession has forced capital spending cuts at hospital administrators such as Tenet Healthcare
Yet our 130,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community, on the whole, still likes the stock:
Metric |
|
---|---|
CAPS stars (5 max) |
**** |
Total ratings |
467 |
Percent Bulls |
95.5% |
Percent Bears |
4.5% |
Bullish pitches |
87 of 95 |
Data current as of April 22, 2009.
"The robotic catheter system is currently being used for endovascular procedures. This is a growth industry, but the more exciting prospect is the newer applications of this technology in other fields," wrote CAPS investor fburks last September, continuing:
A recent article in Urology highlighted an animal study using the robotic catheter system in the ureter for treatment of kidney stones and other conditions. I also think this technology will have great application for NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery) or incisionless surgery. Intuitive' robotic system got a slow start in vascular and heart procedures, but took off once it was applied in the field of urology. I would expect the same to happen to HNSN's robotic system.
In other words: Hansen just needs time to make good on its promise. Insiders would appear to agree.
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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