Justin Jacobs, CEO of Natural Gas Services (NGS), recently bought 2,500 shares. The buy came to a cost of $47,700, and increased his holdings by 691%. This marks the first insider buy at the company over the past two years. The last insider activity as NGS was a sale of just 3,000 shares from a director in December 2022, for a total cost of $33,150. Overall, NGS insiders own 7.6% of shares. The natural gas compression equipment services company is up over 90% in the past year. While energy prices have been trading in a range, NGS has been on a tear. Revenues have jumped nearly 40%...

Charles Johnson, a major holder atFranklin Resources (BEN), recently added 100,000 shares to his stake. The buy came to a total cost of $2.23 million, and increased his position by less than 1%. This marks the first insider buy at the asset management company over the past two years. There have been a half dozen insider sales over the same time, mostly coming from company executives. The largest sale was for $1.6 million from the company CEO in mid-2022. Overall, Franklin insiders own 46.3% of shares. Franklin is down 11% over the past year. While asset managers have benefitted fr...

Maria Dreyfus, a director atExxonMobil (XOM), recently bought 18,310 shares. The buy increased her stake by 105%, and came to a total cost just over $2 million. This is the first insider buy at the oil giant since November, when another director bought 250,000 shares for just under $26.5 million. Over the past two years, Exxon executives have been slight sellers of shares, while directors have been buyers. Overall, Exxon insiders own 0.04% of shares. The oil giant is up 6% over the past year, far lagging the overall market. The move reflects the muted performance in oil and natura...

Bradley Ehrman, CEO ofDorchester Minerals, LP (DMLP), recently bought 2,800 shares. The buy increased his position by 2%, and came to a total cost of $82,600. This is the sixth insider buy of the year. The company CFO was a buyer of $77,000 worth of shares in May. And the company’s operating LP has been accumulating shares throughout the year. There have been no insider sales over the past two years. Overall, Dorchester insiders own 7.1% of shares. The oil and gas exploration company is up about 3% over the past year. While lagging the overall market, that’s about in-line with the...

James Pratt, a director atHeartland Express (HTLD), recently bought 9,000 shares. The buy increased his position by 62%, and came to a total cost of $107,619. This is the seventh insider buy of the year. That includes two buys from the company CEO for a total of nearly $3 million in total, and a major holder who has continued to add to their stake. There have been no insider sales over the past two years. Overall, Heartland insiders own 31.8% of shares. The trucking services company is down 27% over the past year. The trucking industry has struggled as deliveries on goods has decl...

Dimitar Karaivanov, President and CEO ofCommunity Financial System (CBU), recently bought 1,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 5%, and came to a total cost of $43,520. This is the CEO’s second buy of the year, following a 1,000 share pickup in February, paying about the same price. Since then, one company director has sold 3% of his position. Going further back, insider buying far exceeded insider selling in 2023. Overall, CBU insiders own 1.3% of shares. The Syracuse-based regional bank is down 15% over the past year. While most regional banks have struggled with the r...

Arun Gupta, a director atLXP Industrial Trust (LXP) recently bought 15,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 30%, and came to a total cost just over $134,000. This marks the first insider activity of any kind at the industrial property REIT over the past two years. Overall, LXP insiders own 2.2% of shares, and institutions own nearly 96% of LXP shares. LXP Industrial shares have declined about 12% in the past year. While investors were once interested in industrial space for manufacturing and data centers, interest has waned as interest rates have stayed higher and weighed on...

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), a major holder ofOccidental Petroleum (OXY), has made two recent additions to their stake. Over two trades in the past two weeks, the company has bought $258 million of Occidental shares. The most recent prior buy was back in February, the last time shares traded down to the low $60 range. With its latest stake, Berkshire now owns about 28% of Occidental.  There have been no other insiders active over the last two years. Overall, Occidental insiders own 28.3% of shares, and institutional investors own another 53.4% of the oil giant. Berkshire Hathaway has perm...

Hsenghung Hsu, a director atFastenal (FAST), recently bought 1,000 shares. The buy increased his position by 33%, and came to a total cost of $63,115. This marks the first insider buy since April, when another director bought 3,350 shares, paying just over $229,000. A few executives have been sellers year-to-date, largely at the EVP level, and all sales have occurred following the exercise of stock options. Overall, Fastenal insiders own 0.2% of shares. The construction supply manufacturer and distributor is up 14% over the past year, far lagging the overall stock market. While...

Darrell Bracken, President and CEO ofVFC Corp (VFC), recently bought 75,200 shares. The buy increased his position by 52%, and came to a total cost of $997,408. This is the first insider buy since February, when a director bought 20,000 shares, paying $310,620 to do so. Other directors have been buyers over the past year, with one buying 40,000 shares. Over the past two years, there has been one insider sale for just four shares. Overall, VFC insiders own 0.9% of shares. The apparel manufacturer is down 30% over the past year. Slowing consumer spending and higher costs from inflat...