Rising Dividend Payout Shows This Hot Sector Isn’t Overheated Yet

Thanks to lower interest rates and a demand for housing outside of dense urban areas, homebuilders have been a top-performing sector. Most companies in the space have trounced the market in the past year, and have been reporting incredible earnings and sales numbers. KB Home (KBH) is one such play. However, last week shares dropped on lower-than-expected sales. With the strong trends in place, however, analysts have been quick to upgrade shares of the homebuilding company. Besides trading at less than 9 ...
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Insider Trading Report: PennyMac Financial (PFSI)

MFN Partners, a fund with a director’s seat at PennyMac Financial (PFSI), recently added to their stake with a 344,322 share buy. The purchase came to just under $21.5 million, and increased their holdings by nearly 40 percent. Other directors have been buyers this year as well, however, there have also been some insider sales. Over the past three years, insider sales have topped insider buys, despite the recent switch. Overall, insiders own over 44 percent of shares. The mortgage servicing company ...
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Unusual Options Activity: Etsy (ETSY)

Shares of crafting e-commerce platform Etsy (ETSY) have performed strongly in the past few months. With shares now down around to $200 from a recent high of $250, one trader sees a big move higher. That’s based on the May $250 calls. Expiring in 56 days, the option is a bet on a return to all-time highs in a short amount of time. 5,480 contracts traded against a prior open interest of 120, for a 46-fold rise in volume. The option buyer ...
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Insider Trading Report: Veritiv Corp (VRTV)

Stephen Macadam, a director at Veritiv Corp (VRTV), recently bought 5,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by over 37 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just under $198,000. This marks the first insider transaction of 2021. Company C-suite executives were generally buyers during last year’s market selloff, although a major holder made a large sale in late November.  Overall, company insiders own about 3 percent of the company. Shares are up nearly 300 percent in the past ...
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This Subset of the Tech Space Continues to Point to Higher Profits

Software companies can offer tremendous profit potential to investors, even with recent stock market volatility. But elsewhere in the tech space, a few other niches also offer big profits now—and companies are growing hand over fist. One such area is with cybersecurity. The combination of security and software is a particularly potent space, and looks like an attractive space to buy in as tech stocks remain out of favor. It’s no surprise that a number of the big names in the space ...
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Unusual Options Activity: ViacomCBS (VIAC)

Top performing media play ViacomCBS (VIAC) saw a selloff earlier this week as the company announced it would issue more shares to raise capital. With the stock up over five-fold in the past year, some traders are betting on a further pullback. One such trade is the May $65 puts. Expiring in 57 days, over 7,300 contracts traded against an open interest of 187 contracts, for a 39-fold rise in volume. The trader paid about $1.75 for the contract on average. Shares ...
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Insider Trading Report: Perrigo Co (PRGO)

Geoffrey Parker, a director at Perrigo Co (PRGO), recently picked up 2,500 shares. The buy increased his stake by nearly 18 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $103,000. This marks the first insider buy at the company since January. Insiders have been active on both the buy and sell side, with an insider sale earlier in the month. Overall, in the past three years, buyers have outnumbered sellers. Shares of the generic drug manufacturer have been ...
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Ignore the Market Fear in Tech with Profitable Software Plays

Software is a high profit-margin business. Companies embracing a recurring revenue model can do even better. But with tech shares looking volatile lately, these companies have been out of favor with the market as part of the tech space. However, strong earnings by software companies point to further profits ahead. These companies will be able to pass on higher costs, and investors who target successful software companies will come out ahead in time. One such name is Adobe (ADBE). The software company ...
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