Michael Angelakis, a director at ExxonMobil (XOM) recently picked up 5,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 15 percent, and came to a total purchase price of $320,000.
This marks the first insider transaction since March, when this director and another director also bought a collective 202,000 shares. The price of the stock has since risen since then. The last insider sales occurred in December 2020, with shares up nearly 50 percent since then.
Overall, insiders own just 0.11 percent of shares. Insider buying in mega-cap companies like ExxonMobil have been rare in the past few months. With the stock market moving to all-time highs, many mega-cap insiders have been sellers instead.
However, with energy prices looking robust and strong growth, the company is moving back to profitability after last year’s oil price collapse.
Action to take: There’s still further upside here, and even with shares near a 52-week high, the dividend yield of 5.4 percent will pay investors to see how high energy prices move this winter.
With shares trending higher and now insiders buying, traders might consider a call option trade to benefit from the likely continued move higher. The March $70 calls, last going for about $1.60, could deliver high double-digit returns or better 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.