Cascade Investments, a major owner at Republic Services Inc (RSG), recently bought 10,055 more shares. The buy came to just under $1 million, and increased the fund’s holdings by 0.01 percent. Cascade Investments is the fund managing the stock market investments of Bill Gates.
This is the first insider buy since late 2018. Insiders have mostly been sellers since then, particularly C-suite executives. Among company insiders, less than 0.2 percent of shares are owned.
Shares of the waste management company have lagged the overall S&P 500 in the past year, as revenues have been flat and earnings have slid 20 percent. However, shares slid off a bear market in shares starting in March, and have now started moving higher.
Action to take: As a utility investment, traders need to look carefully at valuation and dividend yield. Shares currently yield 1.7 percent, a slight discount to their historical average of 1.95 percent. Shares also trade at about 26 times forward earnings, also a bit on the high side.
Traders may want to jump into the current uptrend, but look to take profits quickly as shares are already nearing overbought territory. The July $105 calls, with a bid/ask spread near $2.75, can likely deliver mid double-digit profits in the next few weeks—but traders should look to take quick profits.