Jeffrey Ubben, a director at Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM), recently picked up 1,000,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by nearly 565 percent, and came to a total purchase price of $88.45 million.
This is the first buy at the company since last November. So far this year, a few company insiders have been sellers of shares. Over the past three years, there’s been a mix of insider buys and sells, but overall sellers have been slightly greater than buyers.
Overall, company insiders own 0.07 percent of shares.
The oil giant has benefitted from the soaring price of energy so far this year. The stock is up 55 percent in the past year. Earnings are up over 280 percent, and revenue is up nearly 70 percent, great numbers for a commodity-based company.
Action to take: Investors who are looking for an energy play should start with a big, established name like Exxon. Shares trade around 7 times forward earnings right now. Plus, even after its big run, the stock yields about 3.9 percent.
For traders, the rally in energy is likely to continue after pulling back in the past few weeks. The January $100 calls, last going for about $4.40, offer mid-to-high double-digit returns on a further rally in shares in the months ahead.
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.