Top Insider Trades: RL PKY CHTR WGP

By Jonathan Moreland, founder of Insider Insights and author of Profit From Legal Insider Trading.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It is a victory for common sense. Tracking the trading behavior of company executives, directors and large shareholders in the stocks of firms they're registered in as "insiders" has proven to be profitable, according to both academic studies and (more importantly) the experience of professional investors.

Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, December 10, 2012 as ranked by dollar value. Please note, however, that these are only 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.

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.

So use these regular Top Insider Trades columns as the initial research tools they are meant to be, and click the links in the tables to analyze a company's or insider's full insider history. Also feel free to contact us with any questions on our proprietary insider data, and how it is best analyzed.

Parkway Props (PKY) TPG Advisors BO 5,822,000 75,686,000 VMware (VMW) EMC BO 127,725 11,696,378 Western Gas (WGP) Sinclair Donald R PR,CEO,DIR 239,500 5,269,000 Western Gas (WGP) Gwin Robert G DIR 200,000 4,400,000 Whitehorse (WHF) Tamer Anthony BO 133,334 2,000,010 Whitehorse (WHF) Mnaymneh Sami BO 133,334 2,000,010 Ligand Pharm (LGND) Bvf Partners BO 50,100 898,959 Bruker (BRKR) Laukien Frank H CEO,DIR,BO 50,000 698,615 Apollo (AMTG) Kleisner Fred J DIR 16,600 362,157 Opko Health (OPK) Frost Phillip MD CEO,CB,BO 75,000 326,865 Source: Insider Insights

Charter (CHTR) Oaktree Opp Inv DIR,BO 516,081 36,164,344 ServiceSource (SREV) Ga Ss Holding BO 4,000,000 22,000,000 Google (GOOG) Page Lawrence CEO,DIR,BO 27,778 19,080,548 Ralph Lauren (RL) Lauren Family BO 100,000 15,343,856 Hunt JB (JBHT) Garrison Earl W DIR 175,240 10,267,741 Hanesbrands (HBI) Noll Richard A CB,CEO,DIR 213,535 7,659,387 Google (GOOG) Doerr L John DIR 7,280 5,000,708 Rex Energy (REXX) Shaner Lance T DIR,BO 284,419 3,641,254 Rackspace (RAX) Still George DIR 50,000 3,362,703 Freescale Semi (FSL) Beyer Richard M DIR 344,242 3,238,023 Source: Insider Insights

Key to Titles: A=Assistant, AI=Affiliated Investor, AO=Accounting Officer, BD=Business Development, BO=Beneficial Owner, CAO=Chief Accounting Officer, CB=Chairman, CCO=Chief Compliance Officer, CEO=Chief Executive Officer, CFO=Chief Financial Officer, CIO=Chief Information Officer, CO=Compliance Officer, COO=Chief Operating Officer, CT=Controller, CTO=Chief Technology Officer, DIR=Director, EVP=Executive Vice President, F=Founder, FO=Financial Officer, GC=General Counsel, HR=Human Resources, IO=Information Officer, IR=Investor Relations, LO=Legal Officer, MD=Managing Director, O=Officer, OO=Operating Officer, PR=President, PT=Partner, REL=Relative of an insider, SEC=Secretary, SH=Shareholder, SO=Sales Officer, TO=Technology Officer, TR=Treasurer, TT=Trustee, VCB=Vice Chairman, VP=Vice President, X=Ex Officer or other title displayed.

Jonathan Moreland is the founder of InsiderInsights.com, which produces a weekly newsletter and offers professional screening and alerting tools to analyze a proprietary, real-time insider data feed. He is also the principal of Insider Asset Management, a registered investment advisor in New York. Mr. Moreland has been analyzing insider data professionally for two decades and has been a contributor to TheStreet.com since 2001. A fundamental analyst with an MBA in finance, Mr. Moreland long ago identified insider data as an excellent first screen to determine where to focus his research efforts. He is quoted frequently in the media for his insider analysis and stock recommendations stemming from it. He is also author of Profit From Legal Insider Trading.

Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, Moreland appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.