Featured stock today on INK Research Insider - TDWebbrokerOverview: Sentiment and Stocks Used car sales soared late last year as increasing demand intersected with a shortage of new vehicles due to the worldwide semiconductor chip shortage.
Axis Auto Finance (AXIS) shares followed suit, up 60.0% over the past three months. Axis provides non-standard financing options to the 30% of Canadians that do not qualify for traditional bank financing for used vehicle purchases. The Axis ride higher comes on the back of some bank funding news.
On June 14th, its equipment finance division secured a funding facility with a Canadian Schedule 1 Bank with up to $45 million in capacity.
On June 23rd, Axis said that it had added one of the big 5 Canadian banks to its senior secured debt facility syndicate to help it capitalize on expected significant demand as consumers emerge from COVID-19 restrictions.
The combination of strong price momentum and recent insider buying has pushed the stock up our INK Edge rankings to help it claim a spot in the July edition of our Top 40 report. Indeed, the stock stands out as it is only one of five new names on the list from outside the resource sectors.
In addition, as the market was selling off Monday, Axis shares traded higher on the day to close at 48 cents, up a penny. According to Refinitiv, trailing 12-months EPS including extraordinary items has been on the rise, at $0.03 as of March, up from -$0.02 a year earlier. Meanwhile, insiders have spent $151,713 picking up shares in the public market even as the stock has rallied
From May 5th to July 8th, five Axis Auto Finance (AXIS) insiders bought a total of 402,000 common shares on a direct ownership basis at an average price of $0.38. The most recent insider purchase was from Director and CEO Todd Hudson who picked up 22,500 common shares at $0.49 on July 8th. Mr. Hudson is the second-largest insider equity holder at the company with 8.92% of shares outstanding. Axis Auto Finance has above median ownership (direct & indirect holdings) by Officers and Directors compared to other micro-cap stocks in the Financials sector according to SEDI filings as of July 18th, 2021.
Axis Auto Finance currently holds a sunny INK Edge outlook on the equally weighted V.I.P. criteria of valuations, insider commitment and price momentum which places it in the top 10% of all stocks ranked.
INK outlook categories are designed to identify groups of stocks that have the potential to out or underperform the market. However, any individual stock could surprise on the up or downside. As such, outlook categories are not meant to be stock-specific recommendations. For background on our INK Edge outlook, please visit our FAQ #5 at inkresearch.com