Mohacsy's Safe Portfolio Member Forum

[dexprs]

Philip Morris Insiders Make Biggest Stock Buys in Years -- Barron's Blog
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 11:25 AM ET 5/17/2018
Symbol Last Price Change
PM 80.81down -0.08 (-0.1%)
QUOTES AS OF 02:54:44 PM ET 05/17/2018
Directors of Philip Morris International(PM) have made the biggest open-market purchases -- both in dollar value and in share volume -- by company insiders since 2013. The purchases come weeks after the stock was stubbed out.

Jennifer Li, chief executive of Baidu's (BIDU) Baidu Capital unit, bought 40,000 Philip Morris(PM) shares over May 11 and 14 for a total of $3.3 million, an average of $81.30 a share. Li now owns 62,300 shares of the tobacco giant.

Werner Geissler, a retired vice chairman of Procter & Gamble (PG), bought 48,750 Philip Morris(PM) shares on May 11 for $ 4 million, an average of $81.44 a share. Geissler now owns 58,000 shares.

The stock has been trading at multiyear lows. Philip Morris(PM) slipped to $79.40 in intraday trading Tuesday, a level it hasn't touched since October 2015. We've noted that some see it as a buying opportunity.

The last time any Philip Morris(PM) executive or director purchased the stock in such large quantities was when director Graham Mackay, former SABMiller CEO, bought 123,500 Philip Morris(PM) shares through an investment vehicle in August 2013 for $11 million, paying $89.15 each. Mackay made the purchase four months after having surgery for a brain tumor, and four months before he died.

Sign up to Review & Preview, a new daily email from Barron's. Every evening we'll review the news that moved markets during the day and look ahead to what it means for your portfolio in the morning.

More at Barron's Stocks to Watch blog, http://www.barrons.com/stocks-to-watch