Insider Weekends: Return Of The Meme Stocks - GameStop (GME) And AMC Entertainment (AMC)

 

In a re-run of a movie we have seen before, the “meme stocks” GameStop GME and AMC Entertainment AMC saw their stocks surge last week with GameStop registering a gain of over 67% for the week and AMC delivering gains of 28% in a single week. While three different insiders of GameStop purchased shares as discussed below, AMC saw continued insider selling.

The billionaire founder of online pet retailer Chewy, Ryan Cohen, became the chairman of GameStop in April 2021 and brought along other Chewy executives and investors to join the GameStop board. Alain Attal, who purchased 1,500 shares of GameStop was previously the Chief Marketing Officer of Chewy. Lawrence Cheng, a Managing Partner of Volition Capital, purchased 4,000 shares of GameStop. Volition Capital was an early investor in Chewy, putting $15 million into the company after Ryan Cohen was rejected by over 100 venture capital firms. Chewy sold to PetSmart in April 2017 for $3.35 billion.

GameStop became popular on Reddit boards during the pandemic and a short squeeze ensued that saw the stock jump from around $4 in the summer of 2020 to nearly $400 in early 2021. The stock eventually came down to earth but remains elevated on any fundamental or valuation metric one can imagine. The Australian hedge fund manager John Hempton summed the situation up best in the following tweet earlier this month. Mr. Hempton rose to prominence after his very public taunting of Bill Ackman over Valeant Pharmaceuticals as discussed in this 2015 Reuters article.

John Hempton’s GameStop Tweet (Twitter)

Looking at the crowds at airports this Spring, it is clear that reopening post-pandemic is in full swing and movie theaters will benefit in the months to come. However AMC was a debt-laden middling business even before the pandemic. The big losses during the pandemic and associated secondary offerings has significantly diluted shareholders, with shares outstanding exploding from 117 million in 2019 to 477 million by the end of 2021. The company is expected to lose money both this year and next year.

Insider buying decreased significantly last week with insiders purchasing $71.35 million of stock compared to $189.49 million in the week prior. Selling also declined to $879.41 million compared to $1.12 billion in the week prior.

Sell/Buy Ratio:

The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week went up to 12.33. In other words, insiders sold more than 12 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week was unfavorable compared to the prior week when the ratio stood at 5.93.

Notable Insider Buys: 1. GameStop Corp. GME: $151.95

Shares of this games and entertainment products company were acquired by 3 insiders:

• Director Ryan Cohen acquired 100,000 shares, paying $101.76 per share for a total amount of $10.18 million. These shares were purchased indirectly by RC Ventures LLC.
• Director Lawrence Cheng acquired 4,000 shares, paying $95.84 per share for a total amount of $383,355. Mr. Cheng increased his stake by 99.45% to 8,022 shares with this purchase.
• Director Alain Attal acquired 1,500 shares, paying $129.91 per share for a total amount of $194,865. Mr. Attal increased his stake by 1.16% to 130,423 shares with this purchase.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: -77.92 Industry P/E: 16.61 P/S: 1.93 Price/Book: 7.18 EV/EBITDA: -39.01 Market Cap: $11.6B Avg. Daily Volume: 3,860,371 52 Week Range: $77.58 – $344.66 2. Cano Health, Inc. CANO: $6.5

Director Lewis Gold acquired 300,000 shares of this primary care medical services provider, paying $6.81 per share for a total amount of $2.04 million.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: -162.5 Industry P/E: 23.10 P/S: 0.81 Price/Book: 3.67 EV/EBITDA: -27.53 Market Cap: $1.3B Avg. Daily Volume: 3,783,409 52 Week Range: $4.17 – $16.17 3. ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ORIC: $4.54

President and CEO Jacob Chacko acquired 350,000 shares of this clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, paying $4.92 per share for a total amount of $1.72 million.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: N/A Industry P/E: 98.26 P/S: N/A Price/Book: 0.74 EV/EBITDA: 0.41 Market Cap: $179.04M Avg. Daily Volume: 428,793 52 Week Range: $3.94 – $26.7 4. Kezar Life Sciences, Inc. KZR: $18.06

Director Franklin M. Berger acquired 80,000 shares of this biotech company, paying $16.25 per share for a total amount of $1,299,800. Mr. Berger increased his stake by 9.87% to 890,691 shares with this purchase.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: -12.63 Industry P/E: 98.26 P/S: N/A Price/Book: 5.16 EV/EBITDA: -15.62 Market Cap: $1.02B Avg. Daily Volume: 585,463 52 Week Range: $4.61 – $18.55 5. ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ANIP: $27.97

Shares of this specialty pharmaceutical company were acquired by 4 insiders:

• SVP – CORP. DEV. & Strategy Chad Gassert acquired 10,000 shares, paying $27.51 per share for a total amount of $275,086.
• Head OF R&D, COO-Novitium OPS Muthusamy Shanmugam acquired 10,000 shares, paying $27.65 per share for a total amount of $276,503. Mr. Shanmugam increased his stake by 118.20% to 18,460 shares with this purchase.
• President & CEO Nikhil Lalwani acquired 7,224 shares, paying $27.69 per share for a total amount of $199,997. Mr. Lalwani increased his stake by 4.45% to 169,650 shares with this purchase.
• Director Patrick D. Walsh acquired 5,000 shares, paying $27.76 per share for a total amount of $138,794. Mr. Walsh increased his stake by 10.33% to 53,388 shares with this purchase.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: 9.32 Industry P/E: 24.99 P/S: 2.18 Price/Book: 1.35 EV/EBITDA: 19.97 Market Cap: $470.73M Avg. Daily Volume: 131,314 52 Week Range: $24.41 – $60.23

You can view the full list of purchases from this Insider Buying page.

Notable Insider Sales: 1. Snowflake Inc. SNOW: $219.81

Director Michael L. Speiser sold 750,000 shares of this cloud-based data platform for $222.18, generating $166.64 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: 610.58 Industry P/E: 46.42 P/S: 55.22 Price/Book: 13.44 EV/EBITDA: -96.11 Market Cap: $67.33B Avg. Daily Volume: 5,244,255 52 Week Range: $164.29 – $405 2. Alphabet Inc. GOOG: $2830.43

Shares of Alphabet were sold by 2 insiders:

• Director Lawrence Page sold 28,291 shares for $2703.89, generating $76.49 million from the sale.
• Director John L. Hennessy sold 25 shares for $2800.00, generating $70,000 from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.

P/E: 25.23 Forward P/E: 20.8 Industry P/E: 23.92 P/S: 7.27 Price/Book: 7.45 EV/EBITDA: 19.28 Market Cap: $1.87T Avg. Daily Volume: 1,556,853 52 Week Range: $2015.62 – $3042 3. Airbnb, Inc. ABNB: $167.22

Shares of Airbnb were sold by 2 insiders:

• Chairman – Samara & Airbnb.org Joseph Gebbia sold 300,000 shares for $161.71, generating $48.51 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.
• Director Jeffrey D. Jordan sold 12,000 shares for $163.16, generating $1.96 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by a trust.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: 81.97 Industry P/E: 1,896.06 P/S: 17.94 Price/Book: 22.18 EV/EBITDA: 187.91 Market Cap: $107.5B Avg. Daily Volume: 6,069,261 52 Week Range: $129.71 – $212.584 4. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD: $221.95

Shares of this cloud-delivered protection provider were sold by 3 insiders:

• President and CEO George Kurtz sold 75,801 shares for $200.92, generating $15.23 million from the sale.
• Please see remarks Shawn Henry sold 46,188 shares for $212.79, generating $9.83 million from the sale.
• Chief Financial Officer Burt W. Podbere sold 13,282 shares for $200.42, generating $2.66 million from the sale.

P/E: N/A Forward P/E: 138.72 Industry P/E: 57.97 P/S: 34.67 Price/Book: 49.92 EV/EBITDA: -629.78 Market Cap: $50.32B Avg. Daily Volume: 5,047,653 52 Week Range: $150.02 – $298.48 5. RPC, Inc. RES: $11.48

Director Gary W. Rollins sold 1,450,000 shares of this Oil & Gas Equipment & Services company for $10.11, generating $14.67 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly by Rollins Holding Company.

P/E: 382.67 Forward P/E: 24.96 Industry P/E: N/A P/S: 2.87 Price/Book: 3.81 EV/EBITDA: 27.46 Market Cap: $2.49B Avg. Daily Volume: 1,392,266 52 Week Range: $3.33 – $11.79