InvestMacro FX

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

Stocks advanced fractionally ahead of the unofficial start of earnings season as Alcoa reports 4th quarter results after the market close today. Heading into the last hour of trading, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all up nearly a quarter of a percent.

Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

Schnitzer Steel Industries (SCHN) a maker of recycled ferrous metal products, reported earnings that beat estimates on Monday. Revenue rose 20 percent to $812 million, though net profit from continuing operations fell to $7 million, or 25 cents a share, from $18 million, or 64 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Japan Airlines Co., which exited bankruptcy last year, is planning an IPO that could net as much as 1 trillion yen ($13 billion USD) as early as September, according to two sources familiar with the matter.The government-backed fund that holds 97% of JAL’s voting rights and other investors are considering selling 500 billion yen to 1 trillion yen of shares, the sources indicated to Bloomberg.JAL’s spokesman declined to comment.

Teekay Corporation (TK) maintained its quarterly dividend of 31.625 cents per share. The dividend is payable on January 31, 2012 to all shareholders of record as at January 20, 2012.

TD Ameritrade (AMTD) was upgraded at Deutsche Bank (DB) from hold to buy with an $18 price target as the firm believes that the brokerage stocks will outperform exchange stocks in the near term. Shares are higher by over 1.6 percent.

Encana (ECA) was downgraded today by BMO (BMO) from outperform to market perform with a $20 price target. Warmer than average temperatures have led to lower demand for natural gas and a weaker outlook for prices.

After Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) appointed a new CEO yesterday, Jefferies downgraded the company’s stock to Hold from Buy. The stock closed yesterday at $15.78 on volume of 35,633,800 shares, above the average daily volume of 20,286,228.In the past 52-weeks, shares of Yahoo! have traded between a low of $11.09 and a high of $18.84 and are now at $15.78, which is 42.3% above that low price.Yahoo! is currently above its 50-day moving average (MA) of $15.70 and above its 200-day MA of $15.31.