Safeway Inc. (SWY), the third-largest supermarket chain in North America, recently appointed Arun Sarin and Michael S. Shannon to its Board of Directors, expanding the number of members from 10 to 12. With these appointments, management brings on board some key industry experts.

Arun Sarin has served the telecommunications industry for most of his career. He was the CEO of Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the world’s largest mobile phone company by revenue, for a considerable time period. He was also the board member of companies like Gap Inc. (GPS), Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO).

Michael S. Shannon was the founder of KSL Capital Partners LLC – a leading private equity firm primarily investing in travel and leisure businesses. He was the founder and CEO of KSL Resorts. During his long career, he served as a director of Conseco Inc. (

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Class Action Suits Against Conseco

A number of law firms have filed a class action lawsuit against Conseco Inc. (CNO) on behalf of purchasers of its common stock between August 4, 2005 and March 17, 2008.

Shalov Stone Bonner & Rocco LLP, Izard Nobel LLP and Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP charged Conseco and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the federal securities laws.  

The lawsuits are a consequence of a disclosure by Conseco on March 17, 2008 that it did not maintain effective controls over the accounting and disclosure of insurance policy benefits and the liabilities for insurance products, and that it would therefore restate its financial results for the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2006, along with affected Selected Consolidated Financial Data for 2003 and 2004, and quarterly financial information for 2006 as well as the first three quarters of 2007.

The complaint

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On June 25, 2009, Conseco, Inc. (CNO) announced the coinsurance agreement of two of its insurance companies in its Conseco Insurance Group. The insurance companies will coinsure about 104,000 non-core life insurance policies with Wilton Reassurance Company, a Minnesota reinsurance company.Management expects this transaction to increase CNO's consolidated risk-based capital ratio by 8 percentage points, along with increasing statutory capital. Since CNO's results have been suffering from reduced financial flexibility for the last few quarters, the capital-building action will bring some relief. The transaction is expected to close in 3Q09.As part of this transaction, Wilton Reassurance will pay a ceding commission of approximately $57.5 million. Also, it will coinsure and administer 100% of these policies. The insurance companies of CNO will transfer approximately $409 million in cash and policy loans and $466 million of statutory policy and other reserves to Wilton Reassurance....

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #5 Rank ("strong sell") List today:

Actuant Corp (ATU) Arbor Realty Trust Inc (ABR) Barnes Group Inc (B) Capital Bank Corp (CBKN) Capital Trust Inc (CT) Ceradyne Inc (CRDN) China Precision Steel Inc (CPSL) China Security & Surveillance Tech. Inc (CSR) Compass Minerals International Inc (CMP) Conseco Inc (CNO) CRM Holdings Ltd (CRMH) Cutera Inc (CUTR) Dime Community Bancshares Inc (DCOM) Dover Saddlery Inc (DOVR) Duff & Phelps Corp (DUF) FalconStor Software Inc (FALC) FARO Technologies Inc (FARO) First M & F Corp (FMFC) The Hain Celestial Group Inc (HAIN) Horizon Financial Corp (HRZB) InterNAP Network Services (INAP) K-Sea Transportation Partners LP (KSP) Marine Products Corp (MPX) Mercantile Bank Corp (MBWM) Mitsui & Co Ltd (MITSY) ...

Wal-Mart (

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Autozone, Inc. (

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Autozone, Inc. (

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Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

Ajinomoto Co Inc (AJINY) Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc (ALXA) Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (ALXN) Amerisafe Inc (AMSF) APAC Customer Services Inc (APAC) Atmos Energy Corp (ATO) Bio-Reference Laboratories Inc (BRLI) Command Security Corp (MOC) Conmed Healthcare Management Inc (CMHM) Conseco Inc (CNO) Discovery Communications Inc (DISCB) Flanders Corp (FLDR) Gerdau SA (GGB) I-Many Inc (IMNY) Investors Bancorp Inc (ISBC) Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc (JTX) James Hardie Industries NV (JHX) Kaman Corp (KAMN) Labopharm Inc (DDSS) Mag Silver Corp (MVG) Metabasis Therapeutics Inc (MBRX) National Beverage Corp (FIZZ) NCI Inc (NCIT) Neogen Corp (NEOG) NeuroMetrix Inc (NURO) Nova Biosource Fuels Inc (NBF) Palatin Technologies Inc (PTN) Pegasystems Inc (PEGA) ...

At Peridot Capital, I tend to ignore insider selling completely. Sure, a lot of sales inside a company can indicate management feels their stock is overpriced, but there are dozens of other reasons top brass sell stock, and they are never required to give the reason for their actions. Investors should be able to tell if a stock is grossly expensive or not on their own, if they indeed manage their own money, so insider selling data really can’t be relied upon.

Insider buying, however, I believe is crucially important. While I can make a laundry list of reasons why someone chooses to sell a stock, the reasons to buy are much fewer in number. In fact, there’s only one (to make money). It’s not surprising that studies have shown much more meaningful correlation to stock performance