Calgary-based IT solutions provider Sylogist Ltd, (
TSX:V.SYZ,
Stock Forum) has enjoyed a nice steady rise this year, shifting up from the $3.20 mark to a post-$7 high on November 5 on the heels of a takeover of Weave Corp.
For one company insider (defined in TSX terms as an officer, board member, director or 10% shareholder), that’s proved a killer payday. The unknown company honcho sold off 800,000 shares in the company Wednesday, bringing a $5.56 million amount into his bank account.
That trade was by far the largest on the TSX Venture Exchange Wednesday and Thursday (and perhaps the last several weeks), with only a $31k sale from an insider at Arrowhead Water (
TSX:V.AWA,
Stock Forum) and a $22k sale by someone at MedX Health Corp (
TSX:V.MDX,
Stock Forum) entering anything close to important territory.
On Thursday trading, someone at Tintina Resources (
TSX:V.TAU,
Stock Forum) took a powder on $48,000 of that stock but, looking at their chart, you would too.
On the buy side, Wednesday was a bust on the Venture with only Callinan Royalties (
TSX:V.CAA,
Stock Forum) ($16k) and Photon Control Inc (
TSX:V.PHO,
Stock Forum) ($10k) breaking four-figures. On Thursday trading, Callinan insiders took another $58k of stocks aboard but the rest of the exchange was dealing in beads and trinkets.
On the big boy TSX Wednesday, there was beaucoup dinero moving out of the exchange but none of it apparently serving as a prelude to disaster as connected guys cashed in on big rises.
An insider at Paladin Labs (
TSX:T.PLB,
Stock Forum) took advantage of a nutty
60%+ post-takeover offer stock rise that day to cash out $15.28 million in stock.
If you want to feel bad about your lot in life, doing the math on that deal will tell you that the insider’s shares were worth only $6.2 million the day before. Retirement beckons – especially if it was the same guy who cashed out $1.25 million more Thursday.
Horizon North Logistics (
TSX:T.HNL,
Stock Forum) saw an inside trade spin $8.5 million of their stock away from internal control, cashing in 1 million shares to hit that total after the company rose from $7.50 to around $8.50 in the month of October – and up from a bit over $5 in April.
Well played, Rich Uncle Pennybags.
In addition, Constellation Software (
TSX:T.CSU,
Stock Forum) (trivia note: they own the once mighty Mamma.com Canadian search engine, though it’s not exactly their premium product now) insiders cashed in $2.34 million in shares Wednesday – and another $2.09 million Thursday, after the company rose by around two thirds since April.
On the TSX buy side, it’s all about Thomson Reuters (
TSX:T.TRI,
Stock Forum), who grabbed $37m of their own stock while engaging in their buyback program. So too did CIBC ($2.9m) and Tim Hortons ($1.5m), but WestJet ($2.3m), Dundee ($4.6m) and Canfor ($1.5m) hobnobs were actively buying around them with big insider snares Wednesday.
Canfor bought another $1.5m the next day.
Of note: Insiders were ditching 253k shares of fast-rising biomed play Lorus Therapeutics (
TSX:T.LOR,
Stock Forum) while others were buying 146k at the same time. Another 100,000 shares were sold Thursday: Conflicting sentiments!
Big insider buying action was limited Thursday with only Descartes Systems Group (
TSX:T.DSG,
Stock Forum) nudging the needle, with an internal purchase of $3.7 million.