The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, tracks and analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership trends. Form 13-Fs, which institutions must file to report their holdings, are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters, and have now come in for 2Q26. We like to review the 13Fs of the major investors -- including Two Sigma, Ark Investments, Citadel, and Berkshire Hathaway, among others -- in order to determine their core holdings and new purchases. Here are some recent new purchases and key holdings of some of the bigger institutional investors, according to Vickers. The ratings noted are the Argus rating.

Warner Bros. Discovery is a diversified media entertainment conglomerate with television and film studios and more than 200 television channels, reaching 2.7 billion viewers in more than 220 countries. WBD is the result of the acquisition of WarnerMedia by Discovery Inc. on April 8, 2022. It also operates DTC video streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+, among other assets. Warner Bros. Discovery's assets include leading cable channels HBO, Discovery, TNT, TBS, CNN, and HGTV, among others.

Earnings season, a time when insiders are broadly prohibited from trading, is nearing an end. Some 91% of S&P 500 companies had reported as of August 14 and earnings so far are up a whopping 52% from last quarter. With insiders increasingly able to trade again, we've looked at the short-term (one-week) sentiment data from Vickers Stock Research so as to gauge insiders' initial response to earnings season. Starting with a broad summary, we'll say that the one-week data is impressive. On a scale where readings below 2.0 are bullish, those between 2.0 and 6.0 are neutral, and those above 6.0 are bearish, Vickers' Total (all exchanges) One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio is 3.85. Yes, that is neutral -- but it compares to a bearish 6.93 just last week and a much-worse 11.50 in mid-July as earnings season was kicking off. That good mood is supported by sector sentiment data. This week, there is not a single sector that sports a bearish one-week sell/buy ratio from Vickers, something we have not seen since the end of June. Four of the 11 S&P sectors are bullish and the remaining seven are neutral. Last week the sector breakdown was two bearish, three bullish, and six neutral. The current bullish sectors are Consumer Staples, Energy, Financial, and Real Estate. Broadening the view to eight weeks, we note that bullish sectors are Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Materials, and Real Estate. In the eight-week window, only Information Technology is bearish -- but even there, the 6.04 sell/buy ratio is tantalizingly close to becoming neutral. The last time we saw that happen was back in February for only a single week. This week, analysts at Vickers highlighted insider transactions of interest at Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) and Mueller Industries Inc. (NYSE: MLI).