CEO makes six-figure buy.Thomas Vetter, president and CEO atCars.com (CARS), picked up 11,000 shares recently, increasing his total share stake to just under 270,000 shares, making for a 4.5 percent increase in his total holdings at the company. At a price of around $9.60 per share, the buy came out to just over $105,000, a sizeable amount considering the company’s $650 million market cap. Cars.com operates a digital marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers of cars. The company has over 5 million listings and serves over 20,000 dealer customers. Shares are down over 64 percent in...

Bet on rally in Brazilian ore play in next month.The October 4th $12.50 call options inVale (VALE) saw heavy trading recently. With shares around $11.80, the option is a bet on shares moving another 6 percent higher in the next 22 trading days before expiration. Over 3,750 contracts on this option traded against a prior open position of 100, making for a 37-fold surge in volume on the trade. With a cost of just $0.16, or $16 per contract, it’s an inexpensive bet that could give the trader a lopsided return if shares move even higher. If Vale shares hit $13 at expiration, the option could...

Multiple insiders buy this week. In the past week, multiple insiders have been buyers atAt Home Group (HOME). That includes a 4,000 share buy by the company’s Chief Development Officer, a 64,000 share buy from the CEO and President, a 6,400 share buy from the COO, a 21,000 share buy from a director, and a 10,000 share buy from the company CFO. These buys have all occurred in the past few days, and represent over $750,000 of purchases from insiders on the open market. At Home Group operates home décor stores in the United States, including furnishings, mirrors, rugs, wall art, and othe...

President & CEO makes a 32,000 share buy.Cigna Group (CI)President & CEO David Cordani picked up 32,509 shares recently. The buy increased his stake in shares to over 357,500 shares, and the recent purchase cost just over $5 million. Insiders at the company have largely been sellers year-to-date, albeit in smaller amounts of a few hundred to a few thousand shares at most. And Cordani recently sold 27,000 shares in March at a price just 6 percent higher. Cigna Corporation is a health service organization that provides insurance and related products and services around the world.Ac...

Senior VP buys nearly $100k in shares.Kyle Larkin, a Senior Vice President atGranite Construction (GVA), picked up 3,500 shares of the company, increasing his stake by nearly 73 percent. The cost came to just under $100,000. Insiders have been net buyers, and data shows that in the past year, corporate insiders have gone from owning 1.8 percent of the company to 2 percent, a small but important increase. Granite Construction is in the business of infrastructure contracting and construction materials productions in the United States, with a focus on transportation, water, specialty, and m...

Volume soars on late September calls.The September 20th $245 call options onHome Depot (HD) saw nearly 8,900 contracts trade against an open interest of 123. That’s a 72-fold surge in volume that the company’s shares, trading around $230, can rise another $15 in the next 11 days. With a cost of just $0.14, or $14 per contract, any move higher could move the option higher on a percentage basis. Given the 52-week range of shares, another 6.5 percent rally in shares seems over-optimistic. Home Depot is a retailer with a focus on hardware, tools, and other home products, with thousands of lo...

Put option buying bets on decline.The October 4th $26 put options on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw over 10,400 contracts trading—a 41-fold increase over the prior open interest of 250 contracts. With 28 days left to go and with shares around $32, the bet is that shares will decline nearly 19 percent. At just $0.15 for the option, or $15 for the full contract, the trade may simply be a hedge following the strong rally this week on the announcement of new trade talks. Advanced Micro Devices is an industry-leading name in the semiconductor space with computing and graphics processing tec...

Shares to head higher through October.Over 10,500 contracts traded on the October $285 call option on Netflix (NFLX), a 76-fold increase in volume given the contract’s prior open interest of 140. With 43 days to go before expiration, the option is a bet that shares will trend higher. Netflix shares trade around $288, putting these $285 calls $3 in-the-money. Any change in Netflix shares from here should cause the option to move dollar-for-dollar, less the decline of the remaining time premium. Netflix is set to post its next earnings report just before the option expires. The distributer...

CEO adds over 3,000 shares.Vikram Verma picked up over 3,000 shares of8x8 (EGHT), where he serves as CEO. The buy cost just over $73,000 and leaves the CEO with just over 889,000 shares of the company. This marks his second buy this year, following a 4,200 share purchase in August. Insiders have a mixed track record at the company, with these CEO buys being offset by sales by the Chief Product officer year-to-date. 8x8 is a cloud communications company offering solutions for small and midsized businesses worldwide. The company’s business model includes software-as-a-service and also offe...