Trump administration’s tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, as well as additional duties on China, took effect yesterday. As expected, the stock market reacted immediately. The technology index fell 1.2%, hitting its lowest point in almost four months, wiping out post-election gains, while blue-chip companies declined 1.5% or 650 points.
“Tariffs of these magnitude will drive both Canada and Mexico into a recession," JP Morgan analysts wrote in their daily Tuesday note, writes The Street. Analysts added that higher costs and supply-chain disruptions will affect U.S. growth and domestic stocks. The tariffs could impact $2.2 trillion of global trade and provoke economic slowdowns in the U.S.
Many analysts have downgraded their U.S. stock projections, believing that strong earnings in 2025 may be more challenging. The broader market index is expected to finish the year around 9% higher than in 2024, but that’s still lower than the early January forecast of 12.2%.
The biggest potential positive factor, many experts are banking on, is a productivity boost from AI and expected lower interest rates. Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Slimmon suggests that the adoption of AI could lead to a productivity boom, similar to what happened with the Internet in the late 1990s.
With market fluctuations and uncertainty at play, insider trading draws attention. Executives and insiders, who possess valuable insights into company strategies, plans, and future moves, may engage in trades worth examining. For example, when a CEO or CFO invests their own money in company stock, it can signal strong confidence in the company's potential.
Insider buying and selling can be influenced by a range of factors, so these actions should be evaluated in the broader context of a company’s financial health, industry trends, and overall market conditions. This underscores the importance of thorough research before making any investment. While insider trading activity can provide useful insights into a company’s potential, it should be considered alongside other key factors to help investors make well-informed decisions.
Today, we'll focus on stocks with at least $30 million in insider spending. We used Insider Monkey’s stock screener to find stocks where at least one insider purchase in the last five months was worth $30 million or more. While the total value of all insider purchases could be higher, we only looked at those over $30 million. Since more than 10 stocks met these criteria, we chose the top 10 with the largest insider purchases above $30 million.
Our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds, focusing on insider trading and stock picks from hedge fund investor newsletters and conferences. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
For each stock, we provide details on the highest individual purchase, the number of insider purchases higher than $30 million over the last three months and the company’s current market capitalization. Let’s take a look at 10 stocks with at least $30 million in insider spending recently.
Is Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) the Best Natural Resources Stock to Invest in According to Hedge Funds?
Oil derricks in the background with a few workers in the foreground, emphasizing the company’s oil and gas production activities.
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) specializes in hydrocarbon exploration in the U.S. and the Middle East, as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the U.S., Canada, and Chile. Last year, it notably grew its presence in the Permian and Midland basins through the $12 billion acquisition of Crown Rock.
In February, the company confirmed it has achieved its near-term debt repayment target of $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 and signed two agreements in the first quarter of 2025 to divest upstream assets to undisclosed buyers for a combined total of $1.2 billion.
In March, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) announced an offer to exercise its outstanding publicly traded warrants at a temporarily reduced price. This way the company enabled warrant holders to purchase one share of its commons stock at a price of $22 per share. These warrants were initially distributed by Occidental in August 2020 in the form of a dividend.
On February 2, one insider — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway Inc — bought $153.59 million worth of Occidental Petroleum shares at a price of $45.55 per share. Currently, the stock is trading at $46.53 per share, down 5.83% year-to-date. Over the past 12 months, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) shares have lost 23.19%.
Seventeen analysts have an average “Hold” rating on the stock, with a price target of $60.81, according to StockAnalysis. The average price target represents a 30.69% upside from the current price.
Overall OXY ranks 3rd on our list of the stocks with at least $30 million in insider spending recently. While we acknowledge the potential of OXY as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than OXY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
