Books have been written on the importance of insider buying activity. In small markets such as the TSX Venture, in stocks such as Rifco, insider buying can make all the difference.
Rifco Inc. (RFC:TSXV) recently caught our attention as insiders bought north of $500,000 worth of its stock late last week. The nearest TSX Venture stock, in respect toinsider buying levels, according to TMX Money,totalled a sum of roughly $30,000 in the final few days of trading last week.
A quick look back reveals more insider buying at Rifco, particularly over the past month.
Rifco’s President and CEO, Bill Graham, bought 4,925 shares between $5.07 and $6.10 in the month of February.
Doug Decksheimer, Vice President, also partook, picking up 2,500 shares at $5.30 on February 19th.
Monte Coates, Vice President and COO, bought 2,400 shares at $5.56 per share on February 18th.
The buying continued on Friday (February 21st) as insider and long-time shareholder, Tim Peterson bought 100,000 shares at $5.50.
Rifco hit an all-time high of $7.20 per share in late 2013 and traded down 4 cents at $5.49 Monday morning.
Rifco – 5 Year Chart
Rifco Inc. operates through its wholly owned subsidiary Rifco National Auto Finance Corporation in order to provide automobile loans through its dealership network across Canada.
Rifco National Auto Finance provides consumers with financing options on new and used vehicles. Rifco specializes in building long-term partnerships with dealers by investing time in personalized services through dedicated account representatives.
Rifco was named to the TSX Venture 50 for the second consecutive year. An excerpt from that press release is below.
Rifco Inc. (TSXV:RFC) is pleased to announce that it has achieved a ranking in the 2014 TSX Venture 50(R) for the second consecutive year.
Every year, the TSX Venture 50 ranks the strongest companies on TSX Venture Exchange by share price, trading volume, market capitalization and analyst coverage. The winning companies have seen impressive growth over the past year, offered strong return to their shareholders and are actively traded in the market.
Rifco was first named to this distinguished group in 2013 and is honored to be named once again in 2014 for its 113% appreciation in stock price and 120% increase in market capitalization.
Click here to read the entire press release.
On February 6th, Rifco announced another press release worth noting. Rifco National Auto Finance Corporation (TSXV: RFC) announced that Rifco’s previous $95M syndicated credit facility has been increased to $100M.
The syndicate has also approved Letters of Credits that will be deployed in the normal course of business up to $5M to certain securitization funders for the return of offsetting amounts from securitization cash reserve accounts. The issuance of letters of credits will provide a positive impact on continuing to reduce Rifco’s borrowing costs.
Click here to read the entire press release.
With roughly 20 million shares outstanding, insiders bought close to 0.5% of the outstanding shares in Rifco during the month of February. For that reason alone, Rifco may be worth keeping an eye on.
To see a stock rise from pennies, in just over 4 years, to over $7 per share is impressive. To see its management and insiders step in and buy hundreds of thousands worth of its stock near those highs is noteworthy.
