undamentalytics Newsletter

Mayrhuber Wolfgang: insider trades

Director at Heico Corp. 11 open-market purchases and 1 sale not made under a pre-set plan, reported from January 6, 2010 to October 10, 2018.

Would copying Mayrhuber Wolfgang’s purchases have beaten the S&P 500?

Too few purchases to judge. Only 11 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 January 7, 2010 into $128,821 by November 2, 2026, +16.4% a year. The copy held shares only 53% of the time, so the fair comparison is the S&P 500 on those same days with Treasury bills otherwise: $37,855, +8.3% a year (the S&P 500 held throughout made $88,989, +13.9% a year). Beta against the index was 0.41. Twelve months after each report, the average purchase was +22.4% against the S&P 500 (median +31.5%), and 73% beat it. Measured from the trade date, the insider’s own timing, the average was +21.6%. After their sales, the shares moved +31.2% against the index over 12 months on average (a negative figure means selling was the right call); 0% 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.

$0$50.0k$100k 201020122014201620182020202220242026 $129k$89.0k$37.9k
Copying Mayrhuber WolfgangS&P 500, same days investedS&P 500, held throughout $10,000 copying Mayrhuber Wolfgang’s open-market purchases from January 7, 2010, 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
+16.4%
S&P 500, same days invested
+8.3% (held throughout +13.9%)
Time in shares
53%
Sharpe ratio (S&P 500)
0.77 (0.76)
Biggest drop (S&P 500)
−34% (−34%)
Market sensitivity (beta)
0.41
Purchases copied
11

Trade by trade

Mayrhuber Wolfgang: trades against the S&P 500 afterwards
MeasuredTrades countedAverage vs S&P 500MedianWent the right wayYearst-statisticp-valueEvidence
Purchases, 3 months after the report 11 +2.6% +1.9% 64% 9 1.14 0.29 No reliable evidence
Purchases, 6 months after the report 11 +5.5% +8.7% 64% 9 1.05 0.32 No reliable evidence
Purchases, 12 months after the report 11 +22.4% +31.5% 73% 9 1.90 0.094 No reliable evidence
Purchases, 12 months after the trade 11 +21.6% +29.7% 73% 9 1.73 0.12 No reliable evidence
Sales, 3 months after the report 1 −5.8% −5.8% 100% 1 — — Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the report 1 +31.2% +31.2% 0% 1 — — Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the trade 1 +33.5% +33.5% 0% 1 — — 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

CompanyTitle on the latest filingPurchasesSalesFirst reportLatest report
Heico Corp HEI —111January 6, 2010October 10, 2018

Trades and what followed

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

ReportedTradedCompanyTradeValue3 months after report12 months after report12 months after trade
October 10, 2018October 9, 2018 HEI Purchase $115,820 +0.3%+38.5%+39.1%
October 3, 2017September 29, 2017 HEI Purchase $114,272 −2.3%+41.5%+42.7%
September 9, 2016September 7, 2016 HEI Purchase $116,733 +14.0%+38.3%+40.3%
September 23, 2015September 21, 2015 HEI Purchase $69,796 +4.2%+29.5%+22.3%
December 19, 2014December 18, 2014 HEI Purchase $119,496 +1.9%−9.3%−15.7%
October 31, 2013October 29, 2013 HEI Purchase $57,563 −2.9%−17.3%−19.7%
December 21, 2012December 20, 2012 HEI Purchase $25,915 −11.4%+38.1%+42.1%
October 29, 2012October 26, 2012 HEI Purchase $75,300 +18.1%+55.9%+59.3%
November 1, 2011October 28, 2011 HEI Purchase $80,217 −5.0%−31.2%−29.0%
September 24, 2010September 23, 2010 HEI Purchase $40,615 +6.4%+30.3%+26.7%
March 22, 2010March 18, 2010 HEI Sale $602,578 −5.8%+31.2%+33.5%
January 6, 2010January 5, 2010 HEI Purchase $109,470 +5.4%+31.5%+29.7%

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 Mayrhuber Wolfgang traded and do not suggest the use of non-public information. How every insider compares · the insider trading backtest.