John Wilder, a director at Evergy (EVRG) recently picked up 20,877 shares. The buy increased his stake by 0.8 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $1.375 million.
That follows up on a buy he made last week for 21,414 shares, paying $1.372 million to do so. And a buy back in November for 21,045 shares for $1.371 million. The director has additional buys going back into September, when the company CEO and CFO were also buyers.
Overall, insiders own 0.3 percent of company shares, even with these recent buys.
The utility has had a strong year, with shares up about 21 percent, just slightly under the S&P 500, an index loaded with riskier and higher-growth names than a utility stock.
Action to take: Investors may like shares of this utility. It’s earning a high profit margin for the space around 16 percent. Shares trade at less than 19 times earnings, a reasonable value here. And the stock pays a 3.4 percent current dividend with a history of growth behind it.
Traders can make an astute bet on the long-term uptrend in shares with a trade like the March $70 calls. Last going for about $2.00, the option can leverage a modest move higher in shares into a mid-double-digit return.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.