Ah, the joys of screening.
This is the second time in ~6 months I've decided to pursue an ignored and/or despised company. What a martyr.
I know nothing about the PTX, its products, or any current or looming problems. I am impressed with the recent pattern of insider activity in this stock. Here is the information that 'green flagged' this one -
From Insidertrader.com
>>Shares of Pillowtex, a manufacturer of bedroom furnishing products have been under pressure in recent weeks, as the company suffered declining sales in the second quarter (ended June 30), and one of its customers, Ralph Lauren Home, a unit of Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), decided to switch to an alternative supplier.
While the outlook for Pillowtex might seem gloomy at first glance, recent insider buying activity indicates the opposite. In late July, an officer and two directors invested a total of $453,000, purchasing 260,000 shares at an average price of $1.74. The stock was recently trading at $1.56. At least one of them, Mary R. Silverthorne, has a record of picking up shares before the advance. In March 1999, for example, she bought 50,000 shares of Pillowtex at approximately $12.13. By June 21 of that year, the stock rose to around $18.50.<<
According to Yahoo, here is the insider record this year:
>>>>>>>
31-Jul-00 LAROVERE, RALPH W (Director) Purchased 10,000 shares @ $2.13.
28-Jul-00 SILVERTHORNE, MARY R (Director) Purchased 50,000 shares @ $1.75.
28-Jul-00 HANSEN, CHARLES M JR (Pres., COB, CEO, COO) Purchased a total of 200,000 shares - 100,000 @ $1.81 and 100,000 @ $1.63.
8-May-00 SHIMIZU, SCOTT E (Director, Executive Vice President, Marketing) Purchased 1,000 shares @ $5.50 - 5.56.
5-May-00 HANSEN, CHARLES M JR Purchased 25,000 shares @ $5.41.
6 -18-Apr-00 SILVERTHORNE, MARY R Purchased a total of 3,200 shares @ $3.94 - $4.00
<<<<<<<<
Since the beginning of last year there have been 18 open market buys by insiders (purchasing 405,000 shares) and 1 open market sell (1000 shares). The largest purchases on a single date on record for PTX (the earliest data provided by insidertrader.com is 02/18/97) was 250,000 shares. As shown above, this occurred 3 weeks ago...by Charles Hanson the CEO, COO etc. (80%) and by Mary Silverthorne, a director and theoretical prognosticator.
Investing by insider trading is not far removed from darts. Once in a while dumb luck flags some data which leaves the unmistakable impression that 'something’s up'. My investment in Hypertension Diagnostics five months ago was a similar flag and that has blossomed nicely (for now); I'll be doing some more DD on PTX to decide if the apparent signal here has merit.
Perhaps the lack of activity on this SI thread is the REAL correlative factor I should look for when scanning for potential future investments. There's no doubt I'm the very first person to make this observation. |
