Insider Transactions: A 6 Month Retrospective
- sci
- Apr 26, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 27, 2020
Taking A Trip Down Insider Transaction Memory Lane
As a follow-up to our previous discussion on insider transactions, we revisit the topic to further analyze insider movements – on both the buy and sell side - that have occurred in the past six months.
During these last sixth months, the portfolio of companies we presently cover is trading down a cumulative 48%. However, highlighting the outliers of this group, Trulieve is down the least at approximately -5%, whereas iAnthus is leading the peer-set to the downside at -90% (with MedMen trailing closely behind at -85%).
While we update our Twitter community in real-time regarding these insider transactions, we plan to continue publishing these pieces on an ongoing basis, while providing an appropriate contextual narrative when one is applicable.
All that being said, let's dive into the numbers.
If you would like to learn more about each company, please click through their company logo to be taken to their investor profile page where we delve into specific details such as fully diluted market cap, share count, key quarterly financial metrics, and also extrapolate on their licenses by way of a highly-detailed footprint map. Lastly, if you're interested in looking at other pertinent data, head over to our Visualizations page for more.
Net Sum Visualization
The above graphic visualizes the net sum of all insider transactions that have occurred within the past 6 months. Continue reading for a detailed breakdown of who bought and sold shares, and when.
(Note: All referenced transactions have occurred on the open markets beginning on, or after, October 2019. Private purchases/sales and insiders participating in an equity raise were not accounted for.)
Company Specific Breakdowns
4Front Ventures:
Brad Kotansky (Chief Financial Officer) - 58,500
Eric Rey (Board Member) - 20,000
Josh Rosen (Executive Chairman of the Board) - 239,000
Andrew Thut (Chief Investment Officer) - 94,000
Trevor Pratte (Former Chief Operating Officer) - 239,000
4Front Ventures, an amalgamation of 4Front and Cannex Capital, completed their merger in late July 2019 and then began trading in early August amidst a market climate that saw the company’s shares lose 30% of its value by the end of the month. In response, company management proceeded to purchase approximately 606,000 shares throughout the month of September. This past December was no different.
After shares slid roughly 50% since going public, key 4Front management personnel -- shortly after the company’s third quarter results in late November -- purchased a total of 650,500 shares on the open market throughout the first couple weeks of December.
We got in touch with 4Front’s Chief Investment Officer, Andrew Thut, who had this to say regarding the heavy insider purchases:
“We have tremendous confidence in our low-cost production capabilities and our current business momentum,” said Andrew Thut. “We're bullish on our business, so it shouldn't be a surprise that members of our executive team continue to invest in the company.”
4Front’s stock price is down 45% year-to-date.
Acreage Holdings:
Kevin Murphy (Chief Executive Officer) - purchased 100,000 shares in October 2019 (press release).
Robert Daino (Chief Operating Officer) - sold 36,876 shares in two separate tranches in December 2019 and March 2020.
Tyson MacDonald (Executive Vice President of Corporate Development) - sold 12,333 shares in two separate tranches in December 2019 and February 2020.
Glen Leibowitz (Chief Financial Officer) - sold 69,955 shares in two separate tranches in Feburary and March 2020.
James Doherty (General Counsel) - sold 17,736 shares in February 2020.
Columbia Care:
Nicholas Vita (CEO): purchased 12,000 shares.
David Hart (Chief Operating Officer): purchased 5,600 shares.
Michael Abbott (Co-Founder): purchased 6,000 shares.
Bryan Olson (Chief Human Capital Officer): purchased 1,000 shares.
Rosemary Mazanet (Chief Scientific Officer): purchased 10,000 shares.
After issuing a press release detailing the company's preliminary results versus the same prior year period, Columbia Care stated that insiders had thus become enabled to begin purchasing shares on the open market. Five company insiders coupled together to purchase a total of 34,600 shares, with the company's CEO, Nicholas Vita, purchasing the lion's share at 12,000 shares. All transactions occurred in late March 2020.
Shares of the company are trading down approximately 33% year-to-date.
Cresco Labs:
John Walter (Board Member) - purchased 16,200 shares in October 2019.
Curaleaf:
Boris Jordan (Executive Chairman) - purchased 100,000 shares in October 2019 (news release).
Ed Kelenchuck (SVP of Business Development) - sold a total of 54,650 in various tranches throughout December 2019.
James Shorris (official position unknown) - purchased 1,000 shares in March 2020.
Curaleaf’s Executive Chairman, Boris Jordan, purchased 100,000 shares on the open market on September 27, 2019. Speaking to the intentions of this transaction, Mr. Jordan had this to say:
“This is an exciting time for Curaleaf and our industry, and I have never been more confident in our future. Curaleaf is well positioned for long-term growth and profitability. Our industry is on the brink of tremendous growth, especially as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are recognizing the need to advance regulation like the SAFE Banking Act. Curaleaf is in the best position to lead this industry and create value for shareholders for the long-term.”
Conversely, published filings show that the company’s SVP of Business Development, Ed Kelenchuck, sold a total of 90,000 shares on 3 separate days just a couple of weeks prior to Mr. Jordan’s purchase. Curaleaf’s Kelenchuck would go on to sell an additional 54,650 shares throughout the waning days of this past December for a cumulative total of 144,650.
Shares of Curaleaf are trading down 30% year-to-date.
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Green Thumb Industries:
Pete Kadens (Former Chief Executive Officer) - sold 418,300 shares
The company's former CEO has sold a total of 418,300 shares over the course of the past 5 months, beginning in November 2019 and with dispositions as recent as April 2020.
Shares of the company are trading down 25.5% year-to-date.
iAnthus:
Beth Stavola (Chief Strategy Officer) - purchased a total of 35,700 shares in separate tranches in both October 2019 and February 2020.
Robert Whelan (Board of Directors) - purchased 60,000 shares in early October 2019.
MedMen:
Adam Bierman (former Chief Executive Officer) - sold a total of 1,342,660 shares in 3 separate transactions beginning on 03/31/20 and ending 04/13/20.
Planet 13:
Christopher Wren (VP of Operations): sold 63,300 shares
Stephen Markle (VP of Production): sold 27,608 shares
William Vargas (VP of Finance): sold 50,740 shares
Interestingly, a YouTube creator by the name of Financial Education disclosed to his 466,000 subscribers that he had purchased a total of 10,000 shares in the company on 02/20. The aforementioned Planet 13 insiders sold off a total of 141,648 shares just one day after the release of the video.
Shares of the company are trading down 32% since reaching that peak price point on 2/21/20, and are down nearly 15% year-to-date.
Trulieve:
Kim Rivers (CEO) - 17,920
Although murmurs of an impending ‘short report’ had surfaced on both Twitter and Reddit a few days prior to its publication, Grizzly Research eventually published their bearish document just moments after markets opened on December 17, 2019.
Trulieve’s share price fell sharply in the wake of the report but, within 4 hours after publishing, Trulieve had strongly countered with a news release defending itself against the allegations. And, in the ensuing days following the aforementioned report, Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers purchased 17,920 shares on the open market at an average price of ~$10.66.
Since then, Trulieve has filed a formal suit against Grizzly Research LLC alongside releasing a supplementary deck that refutes the short report on essentially a line-by-line basis.
Shares of the company are trading down roughly 17% year-to-date.
New Content
Inspired by the above data set, and in an effort to ensure we continue offer the best content possible, we now have a new resource to share: Insider Transactions YTD. This information can be found in our "Resources" tab, alongside Facilities Open YTD and Licenses Won YTD.
As the name would suggest, this visualization intends to track all transactions - on both the buy and sell side - for all the companies we currently cover. Granular information is featured at the bottom of that page, so you can see who sold how many shares, and when that transaction took place.
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