Vital Farms insiders buy after outlook reset; Dell jumps 22%
Three officers and three directors of Austin's Vital Farms bought 36,479 shares after the egg company swung to a loss. TXO Partners' chairman and HF Sinclair's CEO bought $1 million or more each, and Dell rose 21.98% for the week.
Six Vital Farms insiders bought about $302,226 of stock a week after the Austin egg company reset its outlook. Bob Simpson, chairman of TXO Partners' general partner, made the biggest purchase, about $1,970,745 of units. And Dell Technologies rose 21.98% on the week, including a 16.77% jump on Friday.
This is the first Lone Star Index weekly brief. Each Monday it covers the week before in public companies based in Texas: insider buying, headquarters moves, the Texas exchanges and the stocks that moved most.
Vital Farms swung to a quarterly loss and reset its 2026 outlook on May 7. A week later six of its insiders were buying the stock.
Three officers and three directors of the Austin egg company bought 36,479 shares from May 14 through May 18 at weighted average prices between $8.00 and $8.52, about $302,226 by our math. Their Form 4s were filed between May 18 and May 21. Four were amended on May 21 to make clear the trades were purchases.
| Insider | Role | Trade date | Shares | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Holland | Chief supply chain officer | May 14 | 12,484 | $8.00 |
| Glenda Flanagan | Director | May 18 | 6,100 | $8.33 |
| William Cyr | Director | May 14 | 6,000 | $8.52 |
| Stephanie Coon | Chief strategy officer | May 15 | 5,895 | $8.42 |
| Peter Pappas | President, eggs | May 14 | 3,500 | $8.51 |
| Kelly Kennedy | Director | May 14 | 2,500 | $8.40 |
Net revenue rose 15.4% to $187.2 million, but VITL swung to a $1.5 million net loss from $16.9 million of profit a year earlier, its first quarter release shows. Management now expects $775 million to $800 million of 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA of zero to $10 million, which includes about $32 million of costs tied to an egg oversupply. It's also winding down its butter business and cut planned capital spending to $70 million to $75 million, from $140 million to $150 million.
We didn't count shares bought on May 15 at $7.21 through the employee stock purchase plan: 500 each for Coon, the chief executive and two other executives, and 395 for Pappas. The company's latest quarterly report lists South Congress Avenue in Austin.
The shares closed at $8.48 on May 15 and $10.13 on May 22, up 19.46% by Lone Star Index math from Yahoo Finance closes.
Two buys above $1 million
The biggest purchase came from Bob Simpson, chairman of the general partner of Fort Worth's TXO Partners (TXO). He bought 148,403 common units on May 18 and May 20 at weighted averages of $13.17 and $13.35, about $1,970,745, and held 7,950,000 afterward, his Form 4 filed May 20 shows. TXO's quarterly report lists West 7th Street in Fort Worth.
Franklin Myers, chief executive of HF Sinclair, bought 15,000 shares of DINO on May 18 at a weighted average of $69.11, about $1,036,650, and held 177,053 directly afterward, his Form 4 shows. A grant of 1,500 restricted stock units the same day isn't part of that figure. HF Sinclair's quarterly report lists Victory Avenue in Dallas.
Among smaller buys, Dustin Norris, an executive vice president of NexPoint Diversified Real Estate Trust (NXDT), bought 53,663 shares at $4.90 on May 20, about $262,949, per a filing on May 22. KBR director Jack Moore bought 4,000 shares of KBR at about $31.44 the same day, roughly $125,766, his Form 4 shows. And Mannatech director Larry Jobe added 2,803 shares of MTEX at $4.12, which took him to an even 70,000. NexPoint lists Dallas, KBR Houston and Mannatech Flower Mound. Two funds that file as 10% owners also bought: SoftVest added 18,902 units of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (CRT) for about $205,465, per a filing on May 22, and Opaleye Management bought 34,043 shares of Alpha Cognition (ACOG) for about $196,009, per a filing on May 19.
Forward Industries' chief executive, Michael Pruitt, bought 500 shares through his IRA at about $4.16, a filing shows, and the company's quarterly report lists Congress Avenue in Austin. We left out an EagleRock Land director who bought through the company's IPO directed share program and Spectral AI directors whose filings coded the shares as acquisitions, not open market buys. VIDA Global, whose chief executive bought in and after its May IPO, hasn't filed a quarterly report yet. Insider Radar has the full list.
Dell's Friday
Dell Technologies jumped 16.77% on Friday alone, from $252.80 to $295.19, and finished the week up 21.98% from $241.99. Friday was the day Lenovo reported quarterly revenue up 27% to $21.6 billion, and HP Inc. rose 15.25% that day, from $21.90 to $25.24, by our math from Yahoo Finance closes. Round Rock is the address on Dell's quarterly report.
| Company | May 15 close | May 22 close | Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell Technologies (DELL) | $241.99 | $295.19 | up 21.98% |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) | $33.10 | $37.58 | up 13.53% |
| Sysco (SYY) | $72.57 | $76.29 | up 5.13% |
| Texas Instruments (TXN) | $302.73 | $309.21 | up 2.14% |
| Tesla (TSLA) | $422.24 | $426.01 | up 0.89% |
| McKesson (MCK) | $760.57 | $766.08 | up 0.72% |
| Oracle (ORCL) | $192.95 | $192.08 | down 0.45% |
| Exxon Mobil (XOM) | $157.92 | $154.92 | down 1.90% |
All returns are our calculations from Yahoo Finance closes. McKesson's most recent quarterly report lists Irving. The rest are sortable on the Screener.
Our read
The Vital Farms buying is the insider signal we'd spend the most time on this week, because of when it came. Management blamed the quarter on too many eggs, saying an oversupply pushed more product into breaker and wholesale channels at lower prices, and the chief executive called the revised plan "a reset of the year, not a reset of ambition," the first quarter release shows. The market didn't take it that way. The stock went from $12.00 on May 6 to $9.52 on May 7, the day of the release, and was down to $8.33 by May 13, per Yahoo Finance closes. William Blair cut its rating to market perform on May 8.
Insiders bought into that slide at $8.00 to $8.52. The two largest filings are coded as purchases, and neither has the preset trading plan box checked. Joseph Holland's 12,484 shares took his direct stake to 38,150, up from 25,666, or about half again, by our math from his Form 4, and Glenda Flanagan ended at 37,498. Six people buying in five days, including the officer who runs the supply chain, reads to us like the people closest to the glut don't think it's permanent. But it's about $300,000, small next to a company guiding to at least $775 million of sales, and it doesn't tell you when the oversupply clears.
Dell's Friday looks more like a Lenovo story than a Dell one. Lenovo said its infrastructure group, home to its AI server business, grew 37% and had a $21 billion AI server pipeline, its results release shows, and Reuters reported that PC demand came ahead of potential price hikes, with memory costs soaring. HP Inc. rose that day too, so we don't think the Round Rock address had much to do with it.
What to watch
- May 27: Exxon Mobil holds its annual meeting, where shareholders vote on moving the company's legal home from New Jersey to Texas, per its proxy materials.
- May 28: Dell Technologies reports its first quarter, with a call at 3:30 p.m. Central, the company said on May 14.
- June 1: Hewlett Packard Enterprise reports its fiscal second quarter, with a webcast at 4 p.m. Central, per its announcement.
- June 6: The Texas Stock Exchange runs its second Saturday industry test, under a May 6 trader alert that targets July 6 for the start of production trading.
We track the Texas Stock Exchange rollout on Texas Exchanges.
Lone Star Index publishes research, not investment advice.