Top 10 Stocks With Big Insider Buying, Buybacks

Updated from 5:59 a.m. EST

One of the primary goals of Stockpickr.com is to allow everyday investors to see what the big guns are buying. We often see a big-name investor loading up on a particular stock. This is usually a good sign, because you know that person put a lot of time and due diligence into that process. Plus, high-profile investors have bankers, lawyers and consultants breaking down the business every which way imaginable.

The real icing on the cake, however, is when that same company announces that an insider has purchased a large chunk of stock or, even better, the board initiates a new, large share-buyback program.

That's why each Thursday at Stockpickr we update the Top 10 Insider Purchases and Buybacks portfolio, featuring the stocks that in the last week had either big insider purchases or newly announced buybacks, as well as super investors accumulating shares.

UPS(UPS Quote) makes this week's list. The world's largest package delivery company increased its buyback plan from $2 billion to $10 billion based on a new financial policy intended to enhance shareholder value. The shares are expected to be repurchased within the next two years. The new policy also aims at increasing the company's debt ratio to between 50% and 60% funds from operations to total debt.

"We have been studying our capital structure options for some time. This change in policy will permit us to make increased investments in the business, pursue selective acquisitions and undertake larger share repurchases," CFO Kurt Kuehn said.

A day later, Bear Stearns analyst Edward Wolfe, who had an underweight rating on the trucking sector for the past 2 1/2 years, raised his rating on the sector to market weight. He believes valuation on the trucking sector is getting attractive as stocks reach their bottoms.

Of all the trucking stocks, Wolfe is most confident in UPS. Wolfe upgraded the stock to outperform from peer perform and increased its price target to $85, as "UPS is well positioned to quickly firm up rates once the freight economy improves." He concluded, "While we expect lower guidance in the near term, we believe UPS is well positioned for the longer term and at 15x our low-end forward P/E, valuation seems reasonable."

This week, according to an Associated Press report, American Trucking Association CEO Bill Graves made optimistic statements regarding the U.S. and Chinese trucking industry. With 70% of U.S. goods carried by trucks, Graves expects improving economic conditions in the beginning of 2009 to spark growth in the trucking sector. Likewise, according to the AP, Mingde Yao, president of the China Road Transport Association, does not expect a U.S. recession and said the slowdown should have only a minor effect on trade between the U.S. and China.

Adding to the bullish case for UPS is the fact that Renaissance Technologies owns the stock. Its $5 billion Medallion Fund is considered one of the most successful hedge funds, yielding returns 10 percentage points higher than legendary investors Bruce Kovner, George Soros or Paul Tudor Jones. Some of its top holdings are Johnson & Johnson(JNJ Quote) and Lockheed Martin(LMT Quote).

It's also good to see that a fund like Markel is a believer in UPS stock. Markel is an insurance company that is sometimes referred to as a "mini Berkshire Hathaway" and, in fact, many of its investments overlap with Warren Buffett's investment vehicle. Markel also holds General Dynamics(GD Quote) and Wal-Mart(WMT Quote).

So with UPS we have a big buyback, an upgrade with an increased price target and two well-known investors in the stock. That's definitely a nice setup.