Today, I'm going to do something different...
As the chief-investment strategist behind Game-Changing Stocks, I normally spend hours poring over a multitude of newspapers and financial journals to bring my readers the market's next groundbreaking trend.
While this approach has been highly successful, every now and then I like to try something new.
So rather than spending the laborious hours digging through mounds of financial data trying to decipher what will be the "next big thing," I'm going to be looking at where some of the industry's most respected figures -- the insiders -- are parking their cash.
After all, if the CEO of Company X starts buying his stock when it's trading in the proverbial "toilet," then that tells us something about management's long-term expectations for the business...
So, using the Bloomberg Professional Service, I performed a special search function to display all insider trades for the past six months with a market value of more than $1 million. Because stock is often part of an executive's total compensation package, I excluded filings that were made to exercise stock options.
After looking at all the insider buys from the past six months, two companies in particular stood out as potential game-changers...
The first company to make my list was Amyris (Nasdaq: AMRS). Amyris is ultimately a bio-fuel company, but that's not the whole story -- not by a long shot.
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The better frame for Amyris is as a "synthetic biology" company. Its scientists use special organisms that are basically little living factories that have been genetically programmed to produce a certain compound.
Right now, the company has its sights set on biofuel, specifically on generating cellulosic ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane. Amyris is a pioneer in this field.
One of Amyris' insiders recently made a $24.5 million bet on this technology, buying nearly 4.6 million shares of the $300 million company for $5.78 each...
Of course, timing is everything. And the timing of this trade is worth looking into. The stock-price chart for this company is brutal: It's down more than 55% for the year as the broader market has surged 11.5%. As the stock fell, however, this insider stuck his neck out.
Turns out it wasn't just any insider either... Once revealed, the buyer proved to be none other than Total SA (NYSE: TOT), the French oil giant.
If an industry leader and qualified expert such as Total, which knows as much about the future of energy as anyone on earth, is willing to buy into a "falling" stock like Amyris, then it's logical to assume that there is a good reason.