Natural Gas: Why are Insiders Buying Energy Transfer Equity (ETE; ETP)

From Benzinga via Insider Monkey:

...Energy Transfer Equity

Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE) is a large company with a market capitalization of about 9.19 billion. It operates in the natural gas industry by holding onto natural gas and distributing it to clients. It also built a pipeline in 2010 to expedite deliveries.

Energy Transfer Equity recently experienced a lot of insider buying: in the last week of December 2011, management purchased 1 million shares of the firm. This share purchase program was the largest in that particular week. The company has nearly 223 million shares on the market, however, so this insider buying transaction may or may not guide retail investors well.

Investors can consider Energy Transfer Equity’s case to be moderately bullish. Insiders purchased a fairly sizable amount of shares, totaling over $36 million, but they may have purchased even more if they were extremely bullish about the company. On the other hand, management may not want to make extremely large purchases at once in order to mitigate risk of buying at a bad price. Insiders may also not want to raise suspicions by the SEC or by retail investors by purchasing large blocks of shares....