Insiders Buy Stocks in National Beverage, and Sell Costco

In a victory for common sense, the trading behavior of company executives, directors, and large shareholders in the stocks of firms they're registered "insiders" at have been proven profitable to monitor by both academic studies and (more importantly) the experience of your fellow professional investors.

Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, January 29, 2013 as ranked by dollar value.

Please note, however, that these are factual lists, not buy and sell recommendations. Dollar value is only one metric to assess the importance of an insider transaction, and, frankly, often not even the most important metric that determines if an insider transaction is significant.

In insider purchases, George Bracken, Principal Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance at National Beverage (NASDAQ:FIZZ), bought $20,000,000 worth of the company, which is the fifth largest soft drink company in the US. The health care dedicated investment firm OrbiMed Advisors bought $1,142,481 worth of stock in Anthera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANTH), which is focused on developing and commercializing products to treat diseases related with inflammation. Twin Haven Special Opportunities Fund, a beneficial owner of Hawaii's dominant local telephone company, Hawaiian Telecom (NASDAQ:HCOM), bought $389,707 worth of company stock.

In sales, Dwight Schar, a Director of NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR), sold $5,365,343 worth of stock. The company is engaged in both home building and mortgage banking. At the real estate investment trust Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC), which specializes in office development, Director Clay Hamlin III sold $2,469,816 worth of company stock. Chairman of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Eric Schmidt, sold $2,224,362 worth of company stock. Douglas Schutt, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Merchandising for Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), sold $2,059,258 of company stock.

At InsiderInsights.com, we find new investment ideas just about every day using these and more intricate insider screens to determine where we should focus our subsequent fundamental and technical analysis. And while stocks don't (or shouldn't) move up or down based on insider activity alone, insiders tend to be good indicators of when real stock-moving events like earnings surprises, corporate actions, and new products may be in the offing.

**Insider Purchases**
#:	Filer Name	Insider Titles	Company Name	Ticker	Trans Type	Dollar Value
1	Bracken George R	VP,FO	National Beverage	FIZZ	JB*	$20,000,000
2	Orbimed Advisors	DIR	Anthera Pharm	ANTH	B	$1,142,481
3	Twin Haven Sp Op Fd	BO	Hawaiian Telcom	HCOM	B	$389,707
4	Klein Mark	CEO,DIR,BO	National	NHLD	JB*	$325,000
5	Seward George L	DIR	Synergy Resources	SYRG	B	$293,000
6	Maitland Tracy V	CB,CEO,TT	AC Enh Gr & Inc Fd	LCM	B	$179,716
7	Penn Arthur H	CB,CEO,FO	Pennantpark FR Cap	PFLT	B	$117,849
8	Cincinnati Joseph P	DIR	MVB Financial	MVBF	JB*	$100,008
9	Ritchie Robert J	DIR	Gatx	GMT	B	$94,001
10	Maitland Tracy V	CB,CEO,TT	AC Convertible & Inc	AGC	B	$70,159

Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Trans Type Codes

**Insider Sales**
#:	Filer Name	Insider Titles	Company Name	Ticker	Trans Type	Dollar Value
1	Schar Dwight C	DIR	NVR	NVR	S	$5,365,343
2	Hamlin Clay W III	DIR	Corp Office Props Tr	OFC	AS	$2,469,816
3	Schmidt Eric E	CB,DIR	Google	GOOG	AS	$2,224,362
4	Schutt Douglas W	VP	Costco Wholesale	COST	S	$2,059,258
5	Addington Hills	BO	Ixia	XXIA	S	$1,685,247
6	Dentinger Mark P	VP,CFO	Kla Tencor	KLAC	AS	$1,284,971
7	Schultz Alan F	DIR	Valassis Comms	VCI	S	$1,215,000
8	Stadium Capital	BO	Builders Firstsource	BLDR	S	$1,185,063
9	Householder Joseph	VP,CFO	Sempra Energy	SRE	AS	$1,113,083
10	Helck Chester B	VP,DIR	Raymond James	RJF	S	$1,112,655

Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Trans Type Codes

Editor's note: Jonathan Moreland is the founder of Insider Insights and author of "Profit From Legal Insider Trading."