William Kacel, a director at US Silica Holdings (SLCA), recently bought 15,000 additional shares. The buy increased his stake by nearly 8 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $154,000.
The buy comes a few weeks after the company CEO made a 2,000 share purchase, shelling out just over $18,000. Over the past few years, company insiders have been active, with buyers far exceeding that of sellers.
Overall, insiders own over 2.8 percent of the company.
The commercial producer of silica, which is heavily used in the oil and natural gas industry, has seen shares rally 192 percent over the past year. While the company has remained unprofitable, investors have clearly been willing to use shares as a proxy for the health of the rising oil and gas space.
Action to take: There’s still a strong uptrend in energy, with prices well off their lows from a year ago. This is still a stock with some upside potential to it, as higher prices will likely increase production and a need for products like silica.
Investors can certainly buy shares, but the stock pays no dividend. Traders may want to go long via a call option. The September $12 calls are an at-the-money trade with a bid/ask spread of about $2.05.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the stock mentioned here, and does not intend to trade this company after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.