4 hot insider trades: B. Riley chief buys $6M of shares after plunge | Pro Recap

By Davit Kirakosyan

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B. Riley chief picks up over $6 million in stock post short report

Following a short seller report, the CEO of B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) bought approximately 136,000 shares, or $5.46 million worth, at $40.18 and another 20,000 shares, or $775,000 worth, at $38.75.

Shares of B. Riley Financial dropped over 10% on Wednesday following a short position disclosure by Wolfpack Research. The research firm accused the company of leveraging to purchase toxic assets during a financial mania. Wolfpack stated, "Its cash and investments, net of debt, declined by $950 million to -$350 million in 2022 and they don't expect an improvement in 2023."

Wolfpack criticized B. Riley for not reducing losses on its "failing" investments and for providing more capital to distressed clients, such as Core Scientific Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in December. Wolfpack stated that the biggest risk for B. Riley is that a large portion of its loan portfolio is likely to file for bankruptcy. B. Riley's client Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) is trying to avoid bankruptcy with its recent equity offering.

B. Riley has not yet responded to the report.

ServiceNow CEO sells $25M in shares

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) shares fell over 3% on Monday after CEO Bill McDermott sold 53,883 shares, or approximately $25M worth, at $455.03-$460.98.

Last month the company reported EPS of $2.28, coming in better than the consensus of $2.02. Revenue met expectations at $1.94 billion.

It was also downgraded by Truist Securities in January to Hold from Buy with a price target of $420.00 (from $525.00) as the firm took a more cautious stance on the first half of the year.

Shares were up marginally for the week.

2 more big insider buys

Corteva (NYSE:CTVA) CEO, Charles Magro, bought 40,000 shares, or $2.4M worth, at $60.637.

The company reported its Q4 results earlier this month, with EPS/revenue of $0.16/3.83B beating the consensus estimates of $0.05/$3.79B.

For 2023, the company expects EPS of $2.70-$2.90, worse than the consensus of $3.13. Revenue is seen at $18.1-$18.4B, missing the consensus estimate of $18.49B.

Shares closed the week with a nearly 5% gain.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) saw a couple of insider buys last week. COO, James Murray, bought 6,750 shares, or $494,775 worth, at $73.30, while Director, Theodore Samuels, bought 7,000 shares, or $503,160 worth, at $71.88.

The company reported its Q4 results last week, with EPS and revenues coming in at $0.86 and $35.56B, respectively, beating Street estimates.

The company provided its fiscal 2023 guidance, expecting EPS of $6.25-$6.40, compared to the consensus of $6.37, and revenue of $131.5-$133.5B, compared to the consensus of $139.8B.