Asif Suria - Benzinga

Asif Suria

Benzinga Contributor

About Asif Suria

I am an entrepreneur and investor with a focus on event driven strategies including merger arbitrage, spinoffs, (legal) insider trading, buybacks and SPACs. For more than a decade I have been writing every week about M&A and interesting insider transactions. My work has been mentioned in Barron's, Dow Jones, BNN Bloomberg and other publications. I have been an active investor for more than two decades and my background in technology has helped me built tools that inform my investing process, especially as it relates to event-driven strategies that require updated data and processes.

Articles by Asif Suria

Top 5 Stock Buyback Announcements

Here is a list of companies that announced the most significant buybacks as a percentage of their market caps.

Elliott Management's Activist Campaigns: The Special Situations Report

Elliott Management's Activist Campaigns: The Special Situations Report

Asif Suria from Inside Arbitrage shares his expert insights on Elliott Management's activist campaigns and other special situations.

Significant Stock Repurchases at Twilio and DNOW

Significant Stock Repurchases at Twilio and DNOW

Last month alone, 20 companies announced buybacks worth $1 billion and more. So, why are the stock buybacks at Twilio and DNOW significant?

Director of Lululemon Purchases Shares After Large Drop – Insider Weekends

Director of Lululemon Purchases Shares After Large Drop – Insider Weekends

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - Zendesk To Be Acquired By Permira and Hellman & Friedman

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - Zendesk To Be Acquired By Permira and Hellman & Friedman

Cluster Of Insiders Purchase Carvana, An E-commerce Platform For Buying And Selling Used Cars - Big Insider Trades

Cluster Of Insiders Purchase Carvana, An E-commerce Platform For Buying And Selling Used Cars - Big Insider Trades

A nearly 6% drop in the S&P 500 index last week spurred insider buying with insiders purchasing more than 4 times as much stock as they did the prior week, reversing three weeks of declining purchases.

James Star Significantly Increases His Stake In Pet Products Focused Company Chewy (CHWY)

James Star Significantly Increases His Stake In Pet Products Focused Company Chewy (CHWY)

Last Christmas we highlighted an insider purchase by an independent director of Chewy and wrote the following about the company,

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - The Bidding War For Spirit Airlines (SAVE) Continues

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - The Bidding War For Spirit Airlines (SAVE) Continues

After twelve new deals were announced during the prior two weeks, merger activity ground to a halt last week with no new deals announced. Oracle completed its massive $24.3 billion deal for healthcare software company Cerner and in a trend we have been seeing for several weeks, yet another SPAC business combination fell apart.

Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Bristol Myers (BMY) Acquires Third Point Therapeutics (TPTX)

Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Bristol Myers (BMY) Acquires Third Point Therapeutics (TPTX)

Another week and another deal with big pharma buying out a development stage oncology company. Given the real synergies to be had through young companies partnering with big pharma to leverage their manufacturing expertise and distribution networks, regulators have allowed most of them to go through and they tend to close quickly.

Thomas Gayner Purchases 5,000 Shares of Cable One (CABO) For Markel

Thomas Gayner Purchases 5,000 Shares of Cable One (CABO) For Markel

One of the patterns we like to see with insider buying is a long-serving Director of the company purchasing shares opportunistically. If that Director also happens to have an investing background, we like it even better. The cherry on the top is the company also buying back stock on the open market.

Management of Technology Companies Continue Selling - Zillow (Z)

Management of Technology Companies Continue Selling - Zillow (Z)

In a week where we saw most market indices rebound sharply, insiders scaled back their buying after three weeks of elevated buying. Buying declined by 64% in absolute dollar terms and 26% in terms of the number of companies that saw insider buying.

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - U.S. Defense Contractor ManTech International To Be Acquired By Carlyle

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - U.S. Defense Contractor ManTech International To Be Acquired By Carlyle

Merger activity decreased last week with two new deals announced and three deals completed. ManTech International Corporation (NASDAQ: MANT)

Aggregate Insider Buying Remains Elevated For A Third Week $AMH

Aggregate Insider Buying Remains Elevated For A Third Week $AMH

In another challenging week for the markets where the Nasdaq dropped nearly 4%, insiders once again significantly stepped up their insider purchases for a third week in a row. We saw an increase across all three dimensions, number of unique insiders buying shares, the number of companies with insider buying and the absolute dollar amount of purchases.

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - Chicken Soup For The Soul Acquires Redbox At a Massive Discount

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - Chicken Soup For The Soul Acquires Redbox At a Massive Discount

Most M&A observers had expected U.S. deal activity to moderate or drop sharply this year but it feels like things are heating up with large acquisitions like Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) or Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (TWTR).

Insider Buying Remains Elevated For A Second Week $SBUX $UBER $RILY

Insider Buying Remains Elevated For A Second Week $SBUX $UBER $RILY

In an unusually volatile week, we saw significant market weakness earlier in the week probably driven by forced selling and a relief rally in the end. Insiders once again stepped up their purchases to take advantage of prices, which in some cases are down anywhere from 50% to 90% from their peaks.

Insider Weekends: "Adjusted" Insider Buying Increased Last Week With Insiders Purchasing $176.54 Million Of Stock

Insider Weekends: "Adjusted" Insider Buying Increased Last Week With Insiders Purchasing $176.54 Million Of Stock

During a highly volatile week for markets, we saw insiders step up and purchase shares, although in aggregate it looked like both insider buying and selling declined compared to the prior week.

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - Black Knight (BKI) To Be Acquired By Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)

Merger Arbitrage Mondays - Black Knight (BKI) To Be Acquired By Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)

Merger activity decreased last week with three new deals announced and four deals completed. Two of the three deals announced were potential deals in the works. We saw yet another SPAC business combination fall apart. Black Knight (NYSE: BKI)

Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Blackstone Acquires American Campus Communities (ACC)

Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Blackstone Acquires American Campus Communities (ACC)

Merger activity decreased last week with four new deals announced and one deal completed. One of the four deals announced was a potential deal in the works. American Campus Communities (NYSE: ACC)

Jonathan Heller Purchases 100,000 Shares Of CBL & Associates (CBL) And Other Insider Trades

Jonathan Heller Purchases 100,000 Shares Of CBL & Associates (CBL) And Other Insider Trades

When Seeking Alpha reached out to me in late 2021 to see if I would be interested in writing an article about my outlook for 2022, I appreciated this opportunity to participate in their virtual round table.

Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Thoma Bravo Adds SailPoint Technologies To Its Portfolio And Approaches Twitter

Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Thoma Bravo Adds SailPoint Technologies To Its Portfolio And Approaches Twitter

Merger activity increased last week with five new deals announced and one of the five new deals announced was a potential deal in the works. SailPoint Technologies (NYSE: SAIL)