Bruce Westerman, the Republican representative of Arkansas’s 4th congressional district, recently made a series of suspicious stock trades.
Finbold’s congressional trading radar recently picked up on a Periodic Transaction Report submitted by Westerman to the Clerk of the House of Representatives on April 16.
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The filing reveals that the congressman, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources and a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, invested in numerous businesses that operate in the very industries that he regulates.
Westerman’s suspicious trades were all bullish bets
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll divide the aforementioned suspicious trades into two groups, based on the congressional committees relevant to them.
First, let’s deal with Natural Resources. Westerman invested in the following equities on March 3, each with a $1,001 to $15,000 purchase:
- Chevron stock (NYSE: CVX)
- ExxonMobil stock (NYSE: XOM)
- Canadian Natural Resources stock (NYSE: CNQ)
- Suncor Energy stock (NYSE: SU)
- ConocoPhillips stock (NYSE: COP)
How have the trades fared, thus far? Most are in the red — but with the exception of CVX shares, which have lost 9.94% in value since the time of the purchase, all of the other stocks have outperformed the S&P 500’s 9.69% loss in that timeframe.
Only one trade, however, is in the green — CNQ stock has seen a 7.78% surge since the time of Westerman’s trade.
Now let’s turn to Transportation and Infrastructure. The congressman made two suspicious trades — purchasing between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of construction equipment giant Caterpillar stock (NYSE: CAT) on March 3, and an equally valued purchase of Union Pacific stock (NYSE: UNP) on March 4.
Since the time of the representative’s purchase, CAT stock has lost 11.38% in value, while UNH shares have seen a 10.39% decrease in price.
Despite the significant pullback, most of Westerman’s picks have seen smaller losses than the benchmark index — and his bullish approach to these sectors could be a sign that Capitol Hill expects that the industries in question will recover sooner rather than later, particularly in view of the Trump administration’s onshoring and energy independence goals.
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