We recently compiled a list of the 10 Stocks With At Least $30 Million In Insider Spending Recently. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFD) stands against the other stocks. We previously covered 10 stocks with at least $20 million in insider spending recently.

Trump administration’s tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, as well as additional duties on China, took effect yesterday. As expected, the stock market reacted immediately. The technology index fell 1.2%, hitting its lowest point in almost four months, wiping out post-election gains, while blue-chip companies declined 1.5% or 650 points.

“Tariffs of these magnitude will drive both Canada and Mexico into a recession," JP Morgan analysts wrote in their daily Tuesday note, writes The Street. Analysts added that higher costs and supply-chain disruptions will affect U.S. growth and domestic stocks. The tariffs could impact $2.2 trillion of global trade and provoke economic slowdowns in the U.S.

Many analysts have downgraded their U.S. stock projections, believing that strong earnings in 2025 may be more challenging. The broader market index is expected to finish the year around 9% higher than in 2024, but that’s still lower than the early January forecast of 12.2%.

The biggest potential positive factor, many experts are banking on, is a productivity boost from AI and expected lower interest rates. Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Slimmon suggests that the adoption of AI could lead to a productivity boom, similar to what happened with the Internet in the late 1990s.

With market fluctuations and uncertainty at play, insider trading draws attention. Executives and insiders, who possess valuable insights into company strategies, plans, and future moves, may engage in trades worth examining. For example, when a CEO or CFO invests their own money in company stock, it can signal strong confidence in the company's potential.

Insider buying and selling can be influenced by a range of factors, so these actions should be evaluated in the broader context of a company’s financial health, industry trends, and overall market conditions. This underscores the importance of thorough research before making any investment. While insider trading activity can provide useful insights into a company’s potential, it should be considered alongside other key factors to help investors make well-informed decisions.

Today, we'll focus on stocks with at least $30 million in insider spending. We used Insider Monkey’s stock screener to find stocks where at least one insider purchase in the last five months was worth $30 million or more. While the total value of all insider purchases could be higher, we only looked at those over $30 million. Since more than 10 stocks met these criteria, we chose the top 10 with the largest insider purchases above $30 million.

Our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds, focusing on insider trading and stock picks from hedge fund investor newsletters and conferences. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

For each stock, we provide details on the highest individual purchase, the number of insider purchases higher than $30 million over the last three months and the company’s current market capitalization. Let’s take a look at 10 stocks with at least $30 million in insider spending recently.

A loading dock filled with dry goods and frozen food being loaded onto a truck.

Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFD)

Highest Individual Purchase: $64,000,000.00

Number of Purchases Above $30 million: 1

Market Capitalization: $7.77 billion

Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFD) is a global food company and one of the largest pork processors and hog producers in the world. The company went public in January of this year.

Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFD)’s extensive portfolio features well-known brands such as Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan’s Famous, Farmland, Farmer John, and Armour. Founded in 1936 as Smithfield Packing Company, it has since grown into one of the 15 biggest agriculture stocks in 2025.

On January 29, one insider, who is a director at Smithfield acquired $64 million worth of the company’s shares for $20 per share. The stock is now trading slightly lower at $19.77 per share.

Since this is a newly listed stock, there is limited analyst coverage at the moment. Typically, professional analysis requires the stock to have been publicly traded for a certain period before it receives more attention.

Overall SFD ranks 8th on our list of the stocks with at least $30 million in insider spending recently. While we acknowledge the potential of SFD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SFD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

 

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap

 

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.