Levin Capital Strategies Gp, LLC: insider trades

10% owner at Standard Biotools Inc. 7 open-market purchases and no sales not made under a pre-set plan, reported from January 11, 2018 to December 14, 2018.

Would copying Levin Capital Strategies Gp, LLC’s purchases have beaten the S&P 500?

Too few purchases to judge. Only 6 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 12, 2018 into $5,635 by November 2, 2026, −6.3% a year. The copy held shares only 22% of the time, so the fair comparison is the S&P 500 on those same days with Treasury bills otherwise: $14,560, +4.4% a year (the S&P 500 held throughout made $31,082, +13.8% a year). Beta against the index was 0.14. Twelve months after each report, the average purchase was +47.5% against the S&P 500 (median +55.0%), and 83% beat it. Measured from the trade date, the insider’s own timing, the average was +57.2%.

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 Levin Capital Strategies Gp, LLCS&P 500, same days investedS&P 500, held throughout $10,000 copying Levin Capital Strategies Gp, LLC’s open-market purchases from January 12, 2018, 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: −6.3%
S&P 500, same days invested: +4.4% (held throughout +13.8%)
Time in shares: 22%
Sharpe ratio (S&P 500): −0.10 (0.63)
Biggest drop (S&P 500): −84% (−34%)
Market sensitivity (beta): 0.14
Purchases copied: 6

Trade by trade

Levin Capital Strategies Gp, LLC: 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	6	+7.6%	−4.0%	17%	1	—	—	Not enough years
Purchases, 6 months after the report	6	+13.7%	+14.3%	67%	1	—	—	Not enough years
Purchases, 12 months after the report	6	+47.5%	+55.0%	83%	1	—	—	Not enough years
Purchases, 12 months after the trade	6	+57.2%	+76.4%	83%	1	—	—	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
Standard Biotools Inc. LAB	—	7	0	January 11, 2018	December 14, 2018

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
December 14, 2018	December 12, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$6,750,000	+70.6%	−89.2%	−82.1%
June 14, 2018	June 12, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$741,239	not yet	not yet	not yet
May 2, 2018	April 30, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$39,369	−4.0%	+72.5%	+112.5%
April 26, 2018	April 24, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$21,943	−4.1%	+115.8%	+116.7%
March 27, 2018	March 23, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$122,430	−8.3%	+112.5%	+117.6%
January 24, 2018	January 22, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$45,153	−5.7%	+37.4%	+38.1%
January 11, 2018	January 9, 2018	LAB	Purchase	$637,803	−2.9%	+35.8%	+40.3%

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 Levin Capital Strategies Gp, LLC traded and do not suggest the use of non-public information. How every insider compares · the insider trading backtest.