SK: Insider Selling, Sluggish Economy And Dollar General
The recent insider selling action has been much in focus for Dollar General (DG). While around 30 million shares were predetermined to be sold for a total of over $1.5 billion on April 3rd this year (as was already reported in this press release), further selling action can follow, resulting in a drop of stock price.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) sold more than 15 million shares, reducing its direct holdings to around 24.65 million shares (or a 7.4% stake, down from 16.4%). And KKR is not done with it. Buck Holdings LP, which is a limited partnership venture controlled by KKR again, sold more around 29.5 million shares on the same day. Just for the record, KKR Holdings, Buck Holdings and Goldman Sachs held around 85% of the shares of the company, which was brought to public in 2009.
Even the company's CEO, along with a couple of senior vice presidents, sold over 300,000 shares to the public. If the insiders are leaving the company, it can be for two reasons, viz. no further expectation and no future potential. No further expectation means that they do not want to invest in it anymore, moving on to better alternatives. That's what private equity businesses do. However, does company's senior management do that? I doubt. No future growth potential means that the company cannot go up from here onward. While the former is not that important, the latter does make me worry.
At present, KKR still remains the largest shareholder of the company, followed by Goldman Sachs Group (GS), which owns around 15.7 million shares, or roughly 4.7%. Goldman Sachs first invested around $605 million during the $7.3 billion worth private equity buyout of Dollar General, and then had made billions through stock sales, investment banking and management fees. Nonetheless, it still is a part owner of Dollar General. What if it sells a part of its ownership too?