Though many industries have been engaging in corporate buybacks recently, company insiders are using little of their own money to purchase shares in the firms they run, according to a report from TrimTabs Investment Group.
TrimTabs noted that companies have announced $124 billion in stock buybacks in the second quarter, yet over that same period corporate insiders have used less than $2 billion of their own money to buy stock.
"We’ve never seen such a sharp contrast between what insiders are doing with their own money and what they’re doing with the money of the companies they manage," said Charles Biderman, chief executive officer of TrimTabs.
While insiders are willing to use corporate cash to try to boost stock values, they do not seem to think those stocks are attractively priced at present, Biderman said.
Insiders have bought stock at only six of the 30 companies with the largest announced buybacks this year, according to TrimTabs.
In 2010, stock buybacks by S&P 500 companies increased 117 percent to $299 billion, up from $138 billion in 2009. Through mid-June of this year, total buybacks have amounted to $274 billion, according to Birinyi Associates.
