Will KODK Directors Resume Massive Inside Purchases after Q1 Report Amid New EV Battery Initiative?

Kodak KODK recently garnered investor attention after an insider bought millions of shares on the open market after they quietly disclosed in a 10-K filing that the company is entering several new spaces including EV battery coating.

The large insider buys resulted in KODK significantly outperforming the Nasdaq and at one point the stock was up 60% YTD. Infact, KODK bucked the trend all year and held most of it’s YTD gains until just a few days ago as investors sold ahead of the Q1 earnings report which came out yesterday. 

Q1 Earnings Highlights:

* Revenue grew 9.4% YoY to $290M

* Revenue in Advanced Materials & Chemicals (which includes the new EV battery initiative) grew 17% YoY

* Earnings and margins however were down due to higher aluminum and other costs

* The company continued being very quiet about it's new EV battery initiative with no Q&A session 

There is substantial evidence which has been shared both on social media and within the StoryTrading community that KODK is experiencing rapid growth in the exciting new areas of EV battery manufacturing and printable transparent antennas. Evidence suggests GM and PLUG could be customers for these initiatives but the company has remained curiously tight-lipped. Three days after the Q4 report (when the blackout period ended), an insider on the board of directors bought 2.7M shares on the open market, causing the stock to spike 40% in a single day. In addition to the new growth initiatives, KODK appears to be a very undervalued company trading at an EV to revenue ratio of just 0.41 and with real estate and pension assets alone which many estimate dwarf it’s small market cap.

The StoryTrading community empowers individuals to make the best-informed trade and investment decisions through a holistic view of stocks based on the four pillars of Fundamentals, Catalysts, Sentiment, and Technicals. Analyzing all four pillars together can also help identify key inflection points. KODK has bucked the trend all year due to it’s low valuation and compelling catalysts but recently dropped below technical support levels in recent days leading into the Q1 earnings report. Here is the BIG question everyone wants to know the answer to. Is the company purposely being tight-lipped so insiders can continue accumulating shares? Why exactly are insiders buying? And will insiders step in again to bolster the share price when the blackout period ends later this week?

We’ll be watching this story closely to find out. 

Disclaimer: The Author has a LONG position in KODK