Differentiated With Ben Silverman

How Investors Outsmart Corporate Buybacks 

Buybacks are bigger than ever. How can investors outsmart the pitfalls of corporate buybacks and find edge?  

In this episode of Differentiated, host Ben Silverman dives deep into the nuances of corporate share buybacks with guest Michael Seigne from Candor Partners — whose insights have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and more. Listen for essential insights into the execution of buybacks and the potential pitfalls that can arise, particularly around hidden costs, inefficiencies, and misaligned incentives. Through real-world examples, like those at General Motors, Microsoft, Apple, and more, discover the importance of smart, nuanced buyback strategies. 

Tickers Discussed: GM, F, MSFT, AAPL, ASML, RTX

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

Discover insiders to watch this year. Learn the data points and analyses that flagged their activities as worthy of investor attention: wild sentiment reversal, high-IQ cluster buying, & more. Plus, Ben answers a smart question from a listener: Do insiders only buy when they think the stock is undervalued, or do they sometimes buy to try to get the stock moving?

Tickers discussed: THR, SWKS, PLAY, APPN, LEVI

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

New SEC disclosures are giving investors edge. This episode, Ben shares how sweeping changes to rule 10b5-1 have played out in the last year, giving investors more data, context, and insights related to corporate insider activity. Learn material nuances of the rule change, what it means, and hear three real-world examples, including opportunistic activity from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jaime Dimon, Rivian (RIVN) Founder RJ Scaringe, and Shockwave Medical (SWAV) CEO Doug Godshall.

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

Investors who can source conflict, mixed messages, or negative data points in their research process are at an advantage. In this episode, Ben shares a few hidden signals — revealed in insider selling activity, buyback programs, and earnings call sentiment — that can fuel short ideas. Examples include Snowflake (SNOW), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), PayPal (PYPL), and Skechers (SKX). Finally, Ben opens the mailbag and shares a recent question he got from a client regarding the opportunistic timing of one executive’s resignation announcement.

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

How should investors interpret insider selling? There are a lot of data points: timing, size, past behavior, company culture, 10b5-1 context, and more. What’s signal? What’s noise?

In this episode, Ben shares 6 truths about insider selling. He weaves in illustrative examples of recent insider selling from Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, PlanetLabs (PL) CEO Ashley Johnson, Netflix (NFLX) CEO Spencer Newman, Build-a-Bear Workshop (BBW) CEO Sharon John, Former General Electric (GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt, and more.

Plus, Ben answers a great question he got recently from a VerityData hedge fund client: “If an insider targets a specific price, is that always bad?“

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

This month, Ben looks back at the year in insider buying and selling activity. From the long list of insiders active in 2023, Ben selects a shortlist of the best-performing execs and directors. These six insiders displayed well-timed and opportunistic behavior that should put them on the radar of investors wanting to generate ideas, manage risk, and have more edge in 2024.

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

What does a modern earnings workflow look like? This month, Ben and guests discuss the challenge of absorbing torrential amounts of information during earnings — from the press release to the 10-K/Q disclosure to the call transcript. Plus, go behind the scenes with the VerityData analyst developing genAI tools (including AI-generated transcript summaries) designed to help analysts stay on top of it all.

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

Ben and guests look back at a handful of this year's winning investment ideas and analyze intriguing ideas from the recent past. Plus, what does it mean when insiders at a company suddenly stop selling stock? Listen for the signals.

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

Ben and guests dive into popular insider datasets — corporate buybacks, insider buying & selling, stock-based compensation — and share recent examples where multiple factors came together for a differentiated view. Plus, the errors of sell-side short research. Tickers mentioned: THC, MMS, IBP, CVGW, IMGN

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.

Ben and Senior Analyst Max Magee discuss benefits and drawbacks for investors who want to take advantage of recent changes to Form 144s. With the changes, investors are getting more data around insider intent to sell, but how should you include it in your mosaic?

Edited, mixed, and scored by Calvin Marty.