Is Motorola
Of course, not all buys are equal. According to two decades worth of research from Dr. H. Nejat Seyhun compiled in his book Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading, buying is most predictive when it (a) comes from the CEO or other top-level executive, and (b) it's performed in bulk. Seyhun found buys from 10,000 to 100,000 shares to be most informative.
How do Motorola's managers measure up against Seyhun's benchmarks over the past year? See for yourself:
| Insider Rating |
Bullish Large buys at prices near today's, all of which were made by activist investor Carl Icahn. |
| Business Description | One of the top providers of mobile phones and other telecommunications gear. |
| Recent Price | $7.82 |
| Motley Fool CAPS Stars (Out of 5) | ** |
| Percentage of Shares Owned by Insiders | 0.26% |
| Net Buying (Selling)* | $231.6 million |
| Latest Buyer (% Increase) |
Carl Icahn, 10% owner 15,161,662 shares at $7.98 apiece on Nov. 2, 2010 (Increased direct holdings by 6%.) |
| Latest Seller (% Decrease) |
Eugene Delaney, EVP, Motorola Solutions 12,700 shares at $7.88 apiece on Aug. 6 (Reduced direct holdings by 2%.) |
| Competitors |
Apple
Nokia
Research In Motion |
Sources Form 4 Oracle, Capital IQ, and Motley Fool CAPS. (Data current as of Nov. 27.)
*Open market sales and purchases only.
What we're tracking here, and why
Insider buying data can be confusing. Here, I'm concentrating only on buying and selling conducted in the open market. With most of these transactions, insiders control the timing. Other times they're buying or selling under the purview of a 10b5-1 plan. Either way, personal holdings are being bought and sold.
Those personal holdings matter the most -- they're the shares executives hold for investment, rather than compensation. Employee stock options are different; they're compensatory in the purest sense. I've stripped out options-related buying and selling from the calculations you see above.
The Foolish view: Bullish
Should you ever follow a superstar investor into a stock? I suppose it depends. Following Warren Buffett's public moves over the years would have brought you riches. You might say the same about Peter Lynch and Seth Klarman, among others.
Then there's Carl Icahn. No doubt Icahn has done well, but he's had his share of misses in recent years. Remember it was Icahn who bet big on Yahoo!
Over the past year, Icahn's fund has spent nearly $232 million on shares of the mobile phone pioneer. Capital IQ sets his ownership interest at 11.3% of the shares outstanding.
To be fair, Icahn has pursued Motorola for years. Nevertheless, he has good reason to like the stock today. Motorola is a fierce smartphone competitor thanks to the success of its Droid line of handsets. The latest, the Droid 2 Global, is impressively designed to run on either GSM or CDMA networks. It's the sort of innovation that Fools love.
"I think that Droid phones will give them a boost ... The smartphone market is overcrowded, and competition is fierce and will cut into margins. Overall, though, this stock should be trading above $10 in less [than] a year," CAPS All-Star investor Hotpicks101 wrote last month.
I agree. Shares of Motorola trade for 15 times next year's estimated normalized earnings, which are expected to grow more than 40%. That's too cheap a price, especially if you believe the Droid product line represents a long-term growth opportunity.
Now it's your turn to weigh in. Do you like Motorola at these levels? Log into Motley Fool CAPS today and tell us how you would rate the stock. You can also add it to your watchlist.
And if you want me to take a Foolish peek at the insider action of your favorite stock, email me here, reply to me on Twitter, or use the comments box below. I'll write this column as often as you, our readers, demand.
