5 Stocks Under $5 That Insiders Love

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Penny stocks have a solid reputation for being a risky investment; however, if the potential rewards excite you, then the list below might provide an interesting starting point for your search.

To create the following list, we took a universe of penny stocks (priced under $5 per share) and searched for names with a market cap over $300 million experiencing significant levels of insider buying over the past six months.

Here are some of the things we looked at when compiling the list of penny stocks:

Market Capitalization (Market Cap): Market capitalization, commonly referred to as market cap, is the total market value of a company’s outstanding shares. It can be thought of as a measure of a company’s size. Market cap can be calculated by multiplying the number of shares by the current price of the shares. Companies with higher market cap are considered to have more trustworthy information because they have greater histories of profitability and data.

Insider Trading: Many analysts follow insider buying trends because, after all, insiders know more about their companies than anyone else. Their investment activity is closely monitored and can tell us a lot about where they feel the business is heading. Insider buying is represented as a percentage of the share float. Companies experiencing insider buying over the past six months provide an indicator that insiders think the stock is undervalued at current levels. Inversely, insider selling serves as a negative indicator.

Now that you’re armed with information, take a look at the following list of penny stocks that insiders seem to think are good values. Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis, and always keep in mind that a low share price does not mean low risk. Companies below $5 are there for a reason. Use caution and stop losses at all times.

Opko Health, Inc. (AMEX:OPK) is in the medical appliances and equipment industry and has a market cap of $1.16 billion. Net insider shares purchased over the current quarter comes in at 6.85 million, which is 5.03% of the company’s 136.31 million-share float.

The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 9.47% (equivalent to 10.83 days of average volume). The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 10.74% over the last week.

MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ:MNKD) is in the biotechnology industry with a market cap of $335.28 million. Net insider shares purchased over the current quarter comes in at 3.48 million, which is 4.39% of the company’s 79.29 million-share float.

The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 28.55% (equivalent to 25.89 days of average volume). The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 6.67% over the last week.

Vantage Drilling Company (AMEX:VTG) is in the oil and gas drilling and exploration industry with a market cap of $363.33 million. Net insider shares purchased over the current quarter come in at 5.35 million, which is 3.22% of the company’s 166.05 million-share float.

This is a risky stock that is significantly more volatile than the overall market (beta = 2.08). The stock has performed poorly over the last month, losing 23.78%.

TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. (AMEX:TAT) is in the oil and gas drilling and exploration industry with a market cap of $387.33 million. Net insider shares purchased over the current quarter comes in at 1.67 million, which is 0.81% of the company’s 205.75 million-share float. The stock has performed poorly over the last month, losing 27.4%.

Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) is in the industrial equipment and components industry with a market cap of $342.30 million. Net insider shares purchased over the current quarter comes in at 125,000, which is 0.09% of the company’s 132.60 million-share float.

This is a risky stock that is significantly more volatile than the overall market (beta = 2.48). The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 7.27% (equivalent to 6.24 days of average volume). The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 7.84% over the last week.

This article originally appeared on MoneyShow.com.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2011/09/penny-stocks-insiders-are-buying-opk-mnkd-vtg-tat-mwa/.

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