King Luther Capital Management Corp: insider trades

Director, 10% owner at 2 companies we cover. 9 open-market purchases and 4 sales not made under a pre-set plan, reported from December 30, 2010 to March 16, 2020.

Would copying King Luther Capital Management Corp’s purchases have beaten the S&P 500?

Too few purchases to judge. Only 9 purchases have 12 months of prices after the report; we judge insiders once they have 20. The figures below can swing a long way on a handful of trades. Buying each purchase the day after it was reported, an equal amount each, and holding it 12 months or until they reported a sale would have turned $10,000 on July 9, 2015 into $24,155 by November 2, 2026, +8.1% a year. The copy held shares only 31% of the time, so the fair comparison is the S&P 500 on those same days with Treasury bills otherwise: $29,245, +10.0% a year (the S&P 500 held throughout made $44,392, +14.1% a year). Beta against the index was 0.34. Twelve months after each report, the average purchase was −11.2% against the S&P 500 (median −17.5%), and 33% beat it. Measured from the trade date, the insider’s own timing, the average was −9.6%. After their sales, the shares moved −12.1% against the index over 12 months on average (a negative figure means selling was the right call); 50% trailed it.

With 296 insiders tested, some will look skilled or unskilled by chance alone: when we replaced each insider’s stocks with random companies bought on the same days, about 5.7 cleared the bar ahead and 23.3 behind. One record on its own proves little.

Copying King Luther Capital Management CorpS&P 500, same days investedS&P 500, held throughout $10,000 copying King Luther Capital Management Corp’s open-market purchases from July 9, 2015, before costs and taxes, marked weekly. Each purchase gets the same starting stake, bought at the close of the first trading day after the report and sold 12 months later or the day after a reported sale of that stock; uninvested money earns the Treasury bill rate. “Same days invested” holds the S&P 500 only on the days the copy held shares, Treasury bills otherwise.

Return a year, copying: +8.1%
S&P 500, same days invested: +10.0% (held throughout +14.1%)
Time in shares: 31%
Sharpe ratio (S&P 500): 0.34 (0.71)
Biggest drop (S&P 500): −44% (−34%)
Market sensitivity (beta): 0.34
Purchases copied: 9

Trade by trade

King Luther Capital Management Corp: trades against the S&P 500 afterwards
Measured	Trades counted	Average vs S&P 500	Median	Went the right way	Years	t-statistic	p-value	Evidence
Purchases, 3 months after the report	9	+6.1%	+10.0%	67%	4	−0.12	0.91	No reliable evidence
Purchases, 6 months after the report	9	−6.8%	−4.5%	11%	4	−0.69	0.54	No reliable evidence
Purchases, 12 months after the report	9	−11.2%	−17.5%	33%	4	−0.15	0.89	No reliable evidence
Purchases, 12 months after the trade	9	−9.6%	−17.0%	33%	4	−0.29	0.79	No reliable evidence
Sales, 3 months after the report	4	−8.3%	−19.8%	75%	3	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the report	4	−12.1%	−16.5%	50%	3	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the trade	4	−14.9%	−19.6%	50%	3	—	—	Not enough years

“Average vs S&P 500” is the stock’s return including dividends minus the index’s over the same dates, from the close on the first trading day after the report, or from the close on the trade date. Only windows that have finished are counted. For sales, a negative figure means the stock lagged after it was sold, so selling was the right call (green). “Went the right way” is the share of purchases that beat the index, or of sales that trailed it. The t-statistic uses one average per year of reports, because one person’s trades bunch into the same stock and weeks, and needs trades in at least four different years; the p-value comes from the t distribution with that number of years (with four years, a t of 2 has p = 0.14). “Some evidence” means p under 5%, “strong evidence” p under 1% over at least six years.

Companies traded

Company	Title on the latest filing	Purchases	Sales	First report	Latest report
Distribution Solutions Group, Inc. DSGR	—	9	0	July 8, 2015	March 16, 2020
Beasley Broadcast Group Inc BBGI	—	0	4	December 30, 2010	July 5, 2012

Trades and what followed

Moves are against the S&P 500; green means the trade went the insider’s way.

Reported	Traded	Company	Trade	Value	3 months after report	12 months after report	12 months after trade
March 16, 2020	March 13, 2020	DSGR	Purchase	$401,244	−9.8%	+26.7%	+15.9%
January 17, 2017	January 13, 2017	DSGR	Purchase	$5,361,799	−13.6%	−23.1%	−19.4%
August 1, 2016	July 29, 2016	DSGR	Purchase	$522,070	+19.5%	+23.8%	+24.6%
January 26, 2016	January 25, 2016	DSGR	Purchase	$12,939	−3.6%	+6.1%	+3.0%
August 21, 2015	August 20, 2015	DSGR	Purchase	$159,464	+10.0%	−43.8%	−39.8%
July 23, 2015	July 21, 2015	DSGR	Purchase	$359,440	+1.2%	−39.6%	−12.3%
July 20, 2015	July 17, 2015	DSGR	Purchase	$616,013	+16.6%	−12.3%	−17.0%
July 13, 2015	July 9, 2015	DSGR	Purchase	$1,878,238	+14.2%	−17.5%	−20.9%
July 8, 2015	July 7, 2015	DSGR	Purchase	$977,646	+20.0%	−20.9%	−20.1%
July 5, 2012	July 2, 2012	BBGI	Sale	$15,652	−22.3%	+34.0%	+32.2%
June 21, 2012	June 20, 2012	BBGI	Sale	$34,632	−23.3%	+13.5%	+12.7%
February 24, 2011	February 22, 2011	BBGI	Sale	$374,720	−17.3%	−46.5%	−52.7%
December 30, 2010	December 28, 2010	BBGI	Sale	$66,589	+29.9%	−49.3%	−51.9%

Open-market purchases and sales of at least $10,000 in companies we cover, from SEC Form 4 filings; sales made under a pre-set Rule 10b5-1 plan are not shown. “Not yet” means the window has not finished or the share price was under $5 at entry. These are the shares’ moves after each trade: they say nothing about why King Luther Capital Management Corp traded and do not suggest the use of non-public information. How every insider compares · the insider trading backtest.