Scripps Charles E and related entities: insider trades

10% owner at E.w. Scripps Co. 23 open-market purchases and no sales not made under a pre-set plan, reported from January 28, 2015 to February 11, 2019. Trades reported separately by several related funds or companies are counted once, under this name.

Would copying Scripps Charles E and related entities’s purchases have beaten the S&P 500?

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 January 29, 2015 into $9,785 by November 2, 2026, −0.2% a year. The copy held shares only 25% of the time, so the fair comparison is the S&P 500 on those same days with Treasury bills otherwise: $16,711, +4.5% a year (the S&P 500 held throughout made $45,453, +13.8% a year). Beta against the index was 0.22. Twelve months after each report, the average purchase was −31.6% against the S&P 500 (median −30.3%), and 4% beat it: too few years of purchases to tell skill from luck. Measured from the trade date, the insider’s own timing, the average was −31.7%.

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 Scripps Charles E and related entitiesS&P 500, same days investedS&P 500, held throughout $10,000 copying Scripps Charles E and related entities’s open-market purchases from January 29, 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: −0.2%
S&P 500, same days invested: +4.5% (held throughout +13.8%)
Time in shares: 25%
Sharpe ratio (S&P 500): −0.03 (0.70)
Biggest drop (S&P 500): −53% (−34%)
Market sensitivity (beta): 0.22
Purchases copied: 23

Trade by trade

Scripps Charles E and related entities: 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	23	+14.8%	+14.2%	96%	3	—	—	Not enough years
Purchases, 6 months after the report	23	−3.4%	−13.6%	35%	3	—	—	Not enough years
Purchases, 12 months after the report	23	−31.6%	−30.3%	4%	3	—	—	Not enough years
Purchases, 12 months after the trade	23	−31.7%	−30.8%	4%	3	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 3 months after the report	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the report	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the trade	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	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
E.w. Scripps Co SSP	—	23	0	January 28, 2015	February 11, 2019

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
February 11, 2019	February 11, 2019	SSP	Purchase	$94,650	−10.4%	−54.4%	−55.3%
February 4, 2019	February 4, 2019	SSP	Purchase	$92,450	+11.4%	−51.9%	−52.9%
January 28, 2019	January 28, 2019	SSP	Purchase	$94,000	+9.4%	−56.0%	−53.6%
January 14, 2019	January 14, 2019	SSP	Purchase	$91,350	+14.2%	−38.8%	−43.8%
January 7, 2019	January 7, 2019	SSP	Purchase	$85,050	+13.0%	−37.2%	−36.2%
December 31, 2018	December 31, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$77,450	+17.4%	−38.3%	−30.1%
December 26, 2018	December 24, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$76,200	+20.3%	−30.6%	−33.9%
December 18, 2018	December 17, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$80,650	+25.5%	−30.2%	−31.0%
December 11, 2018	December 10, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$83,400	+24.5%	−34.0%	−30.8%
December 3, 2018	December 3, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$87,300	+28.4%	−30.1%	−29.3%
November 26, 2018	November 26, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$85,550	+26.1%	−30.3%	−28.4%
November 19, 2018	November 19, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$87,000	+12.4%	−33.3%	−34.8%
November 13, 2018	November 12, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$86,950	+9.6%	−32.9%	−32.4%
November 6, 2018	November 5, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$87,200	+9.4%	−24.8%	−33.9%
October 30, 2018	October 29, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$80,400	+9.9%	−33.1%	−31.3%
October 24, 2018	October 22, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$89,100	+17.1%	−27.3%	−30.0%
October 16, 2018	October 15, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$82,100	+15.3%	−28.4%	−29.5%
October 9, 2018	October 8, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$81,650	+18.0%	−28.1%	−26.9%
October 1, 2018	October 1, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$81,900	+15.8%	−24.4%	−21.6%
September 25, 2018	September 24, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$81,300	+10.7%	−21.5%	−21.1%
September 18, 2018	September 17, 2018	SSP	Purchase	$81,550	+8.7%	−23.5%	−22.8%
August 12, 2015	August 11, 2015	SSP	Purchase	$2,234,400	+6.0%	−26.7%	−27.8%
January 28, 2015	January 27, 2015	SSP	Purchase	$1,381,908	+28.4%	+9.7%	+8.2%

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 Scripps Charles E and related entities traded and do not suggest the use of non-public information. How every insider compares · the insider trading backtest.