One very common theme to follow for tactical investor is to follow what the big money is buying or selling. This is also called “whale-watching” but it also includes tracking insiders’ buying and selling of their own shares. Corporate “insiders” buy and sell their own securities all the time, with a myriad of reasons for selling stock – locking in massive gains, ongoing planned sales, buying a home (or jet), estate planning, tax strategies, diversification and so on.

When corporate insiders and the so-called whales are buying a stock, particularly when it is their own company, there is basically only this explanation — they think their stock has sold off too much or hey believe the long-term value will be much higher.

Tactical Bulls has tracked multiple insider transactions in September. Investors must not ignore the effects of the calendar in investing as September and October are two of the worth historical months for the stock market. That also might create more times and opportunistic CEO or corporate inside gets a chance to “buy on the cheap” in the days and weeks ahead.

There are of course no assurances that insider buying translates to guaranteed profits. Some CEOs and insiders are not as smart as you might think. And others may just be wrong, or they may be stepping into a paradigm shift in their sector that they just were not prepared for. It happens.

Tactical Bulls is not issuing any buy or sell recommendations based on these insider transactions. Any decision to buy, sell, hold (or even short sell) is a decision that each investors needs to make on their own and with their financial advisor.

Here are some of the top insider transactions that have been tracked recently.

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) has seen its share of weakness in 2024 as shares are down about 33% YTD. Charles B. Johnson, already listed as a 10% owner, bought another 100,000 shares of the mutual fund manager for $1.907 million. He now holds more than $89.3 million shares of Franklin Resources. Franklin Resources was a $30 stock at the end of 2023, but it has lost a third of its value and was just under $20 on last look. As a result of the share weakness, it’s dividend yield is now about 6.2%.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) has been given an in-depth review from Tactical Bulls about its painful transition to a normal growth company rather than its hyper-growth of the last decade-plus. CEO Calvin McDonald spent about $1 million on September 3, 2024 to buy 4,000 LULU shares with an average of about $260 each. He is now owner of 89,920 LULU shares. After LULU lost half of its value this year it should stand out that this appears to be McDonald’s first actual share purchase using open market transactions in actual stock. The rest are from share grants, incentives and/or stock options.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (NASDAQ: DJT) is of course a controversial stock because of its key owner and Truth Social. There has been much speculation that Donald Trump could raise massive money if he sold shares in his social media company. His lock-up period is a week away. Trump did not actually buy more shares of Truth Social but a WSJ report that “he’s not selling Truth Social shares” sent shares up over 20% late on Friday afternoon after shares had slid to as low as $16.00 after being at $24 a month earlier. While this is not “buying” it also means that millions of shares might not be sold in a short period of time, assuming the WSJ report was accurate. The stock ended up closing up 11.8% at $17.97 on Friday but share volume was nearly three-times normal volume.

PBF Energy Inc. (NYSE: PBF) saw Control Empresarial de Capital acquire another 805,300 shares for more than $26.2 million in shares on September 5. It now holds more than 20.6 million shares. It had also purchased 470,000 shares on September 10, another 300,000 shares on September 9, and another 452,500 shares on September 6. Since July its shares have slid from $45 to about $32 before the last uptick.

Permian Resources Corp. (NYSE: PR) was at $16.50 in July but was down to $13.50 on last look. William J. Quinn is a director of the company and he purchased 250,000 shares on September 10 for an average of $12.80 per share for a total of about $3.2 million. Quinn also bought 62,429 more shares on September 11 for about $795K and his total ownership is now also listed as 213,429 shares of the $9.5 million oil and gas exploration and production outfit. On September 3, Permian Resources Corporation’s board authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program to replace its prior $500 million program and raised its dividend by 150% (now with a 4.4% dividend yield).

Prospect Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: PSEC) saw a rapid 10%-plus drop in August, but it has recovered most of the loss since. The stock is still down about 8% YTD with more than a $2.3 billion market cap for this “BDCO” (business development company) with what appears to be a 13% dividend yield. CEO John Berry has been active with 6 different buy transactions in September alone. He spent close to $16 million so far this month and now holds 71.381 million shares of Prospect Capital. There was an interesting analyst interaction here during the last conference call that might be worth a read.

ProFrac Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: ACDC) has seen THRC Holdings LP continually raise its share holdings in 2024. With too many transactions to easily count in the last 30 days alone, THRC Holdings has raised its stake to 78.84 million shares 76.67 million shares. At $6.17 on last look, ProFrac is down about 27% YTD.

DallasNews Corporation (NASDAQ: DALN) is a microcap stock with thin trading volumes and only about $25 million in market capitalization. While it is not down much from its 52-week highs the stock is down about 40% from its 2022 peak. Robert Decherd, listed as a 10% beneficial owner, bought 25,000 shares for a listed $150,000 and he now owns more than 515,000 shares in total.

Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ETON) has seen its shares blast off since early August, rising from $3.30 to about $5.00 on last look. Opaleye Management, listed as a 10% owner here, purchased 57,500 shares of Eton on September 10 and another 50,000 shares on September 11. That now gives it 2.705 million shares of the company targeting rare diseases.

Appian Corp. (NASDAQ: APPN) has seen three buy transactions by Abdiel Capital Advisors, listed as a 10% beneficial owner. Abdiel bought 12,984 shares for $403K on September 10, bought 21,769 shares for $679K on September 11, and another 8,625 shares for $272K on September 12. It now owns 10.079 million shares on last look. Appian has a market cap above $2.3 billion.

Cognyte Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGNT) saw two fresh purchases by holder Topline Capital Management on September 11 and 12. It added up to 969,631 shares for more than $6 million. Topline now holds 9.02 million shares.

Arcosa Inc. (NYSE: ACA) saw director Steven Demetriou buy 6,000 shares for $526K on September 12. While this may not be a massive buy on the surface for a $4.4 billion company this effectively tripled his total shares to 9,943 shares of Arcosa.