JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wasn’t the only big name on Wall Street buying shares as the market was tumbling in February 2011.
Dimon famously bought 500,000 shares of his company’s stock — right before the market began to climb for the rest of the year and into 2017.
The bold move became known as the “Dimon Bottom,” but Dimon wasn’t alone. Warren Buffett, Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, Elon Musk and casino magnate Steve Wynn all made investments that week, profiting millions of dollars as the stock market began a rally that has seen the S&P 500 surge 24.6 percent.
Dimon’s $26 million purchase last year was larger than normal. It increased his personal stake in JPM shares by 8 percent.
The trade paid off well, as the stock rose 60 percent since then, making him $16 million just on his trade last year. That’s not even counting the over $200 million he gained on his original stake.
Mnuchin made two purchases of CIT Group that week, totaling 229,800 shares, at around $26, according to SEC filings tracked by OpenInsider.
At the time Mnuchin was was vice chairman of CIT. Mnuchin also bought 114,624 shares at $27.77 the week prior, on Feb 4. Compare those purchase prices to the $41.07 closing price CIT had on this week, or the $41.05 price it had in early December, when Mnuchin was tapped to run Treasury. All three trades combined earned him a profit of $4.9 million.
Wynn also made well-timed purchases.
The Wynn Resorts CEO made his $15 million purchase in the week of the Dimon Bottom as the tail end of an even larger buying spree in December and January.
Wynn’s February 2016 buy was the last time he bought Wynn shares. With a share price around $95 now instead of in the $50s, he’s been a clear winner. Profits on that buy were about $10 million.
Buffett’s purchase of more than 1 million shares in Phillips 66 was simply part of a longer series of purchases spread out over the year, but he was wise to continue buying during the temporary slump. Phillips 66 has paid off the worst of all the February investments, returning only 8 percent.
And then there’s Musk, who bought almost 570,000 shares of SolarCity on Feb. 12 last year.
The purchase price was $17.56, a good deal considering the company was sold with the stock worth $25.37. That itself meant a 45 percent gain in just 6 months. But because those shares were converted into Tesla stock, which is up another 20 percent since the acquisition, that adds to Musk’s gains. All in, that’s over $5 million for one trade last February.
If you consider the same five trades, but this time sort them by percentage return, you’ll see that instead of Dimon being the big winner, it was actually Wynn, with Mnuchin and Musk right there with him.
Warren Buffett, Steve Mnuchin, Elon Musk also bought stocks at the ‘Dimon Bottom’ have 453 words, post on www.cnbc.com at 2017-02-10 00:38:49. This is cached page on WBNews. If you want remove this page, please contact us.
