Kelcy Warren buys $21.3 million of Energy Transfer: Texas insiders
Energy Transfer director Kelcy Warren bought 1 million units on Aug. 18 and 19 at about $21.26, the largest Texas open market insider buy of the week. Directors at Mobia Medical, Strive and First Financial also bought.
Kelcy Warren put about $21.3 million into Energy Transfer units last week, and it was the biggest open market purchase we found in Texas company Form 4 filings between Aug. 17 and Aug. 23. Insiders at four other Texas companies and trusts bought too, but the dollar amounts were a fraction of Warren's.
We counted filings by the date they hit filings, and only code P open market purchases. Grants, option exercises, employee stock plan buys and trades under preset trading plans are out. Here's what was left.
| Company | Insider | Role | Trade dates | Shares | Price | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy Transfer (ET) | Kelcy Warren | Director | Aug. 18 to 19 | 1,000,000 | $21.26 to $21.27 | Aug. 20 |
| Mobia Medical (MOBI) | Casey Tansey | Director | Aug. 13 to 18 | 85,000 | $11.51 to $12.53 | Aug. 17, Aug. 20 |
| Strive (ASST) | Pierre Rochard | Director | Aug. 14 | 15,900 | $12.54 | Aug. 18 |
| Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (CRT) | SoftVest, LP | 10% owner | Aug. 13 to 14 | 12,696 units | $10.12 to $10.44 | Aug. 17 |
| First Financial Bankshares (FFIN) | Michael Denny | Director | Aug. 18 | 3,000 | $34.66 | Aug. 20 |
Prices are the weighted averages each filing reports. Dollar totals below are Lone Star Index calculations from those share counts and prices.
Warren's buy
Warren's Form 4 shows 352,032 units bought on Aug. 18 at $21.27 and 647,968 on Aug. 19 at $21.26, all through Kelcy Warren Partners, LP. That comes to about $21.26 million. The preset trading plan box isn't checked, and the partnership held 147,901,879 units afterward. Warren also reports about 15 million units held directly and other blocks through five more entities.
Energy Transfer's latest quarterly report lists Dallas as its business address. Units closed at $21.05 on Aug. 14 and $21.19 on Aug. 21, so they rose 0.67% on the week by our math, using daily closes from StockAnalysis. 247 Wall St. put the 52 week high at $21.64, so Warren paid close to the top of the range. Energy Transfer raised its quarterly distribution to $0.34 a unit on July 27, its 19th straight increase, per the company.
Our read
The most interesting thing about this purchase isn't the $21.3 million. It's the buyer's other big holding. Kelcy Warren Partners, LP, the partnership that bought these units, was listed as the largest owner of TXSE Group, the Texas Stock Exchange's parent, in an ownership exhibit the exchange filed with the SEC with data as of July 29, 2025. It showed 31.5% on a non fully diluted basis and 23.2% fully diluted, close to three times the next holder. That's the latest breakdown we found, and it's a year old. Venable said in a July client note that a central goal of the exchange is to bring real competition to the long standing exchange duopoly, and it expected corporate listings to start in October. Nothing we read ties this purchase to TXSE, and as of this issue Energy Transfer hasn't announced any change to where it lists.
As an insider signal it's mixed. Warren bought two weeks after Energy Transfer raised its 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to between $18.8 billion and $19.1 billion, from $18.2 billion to $18.6 billion, and close to the 52 week high. So he added after good news, not into a falling price. Next to what the partnership already owned, though, it's small. Kelcy Warren Partners held 147,901,879 units afterward, per the Form 4, so the purchase grew that block by under 1%, and at the Aug. 21 close of $21.19 that one holding was worth about $3.1 billion by our math.
The smaller buys
Tansey, a director at Austin based Mobia Medical, filed on Aug. 17 and again on Aug. 20. The first filing covers 68,559 shares bought from Aug. 13 through Aug. 17, and the second adds 16,441 shares on Aug. 18 at $12.07. That's about $996,000 in all, and he held 318,332 shares directly when he was done.
Rochard bought 15,900 Class A shares of Strive, about $199,000, and the filing shows it was his first reported stake. Strive is incorporated in Nevada but lists Dallas as its business address in its latest quarterly report.
SoftVest, the Abilene investor that files as a 10% owner of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust, kept adding units, per its filing. Denny's purchase at the Abilene bank holding company was about $104,000, and he made it through his IRA.
The other side
Two Houston CEOs sold under preset plans. Halliburton CEO Jeffrey Miller sold 124,483 shares at $35.00 on Aug. 18 under a plan adopted May 13, his Form 4 shows. Ranger Energy Services CEO Stuart Bodden sold 95,000 shares at $17.16 on Aug. 20, also under a plan, per his filing. Plan sales are scheduled in advance, so they say less about an insider's current view than a discretionary buy.
What to watch
- October: TXSE corporate listings are expected to start, per Venable's July client note.
- Any new Form 4 from Kelcy Warren Partners would show up fast, since insiders have two business days to report a trade.
- Another Mobia Medical filing from Tansey would extend a run that already covers four separate trading days.
The full feed lives on Insider Radar, and the screener sorts these names by sector and size.
Lone Star Index publishes research, not investment advice.