Zacks – ‘Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) Loses -12.19% in 4 Weeks’ What Zack’s Said and Missed about ELS–Another Manufactured Housing Institute Insider Brand Scandal Brewing? Facts-Analysis
“The heavy selling of ELS shares appears to be in the process of exhausting itself,” said Zacks in a report dated 10.9.2024 entitled: “Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) Loses -12.19% in 4 Weeks, Here’s Why a Trend Reversal May be Around the Corner.” “While the stock has lost 12.2% over the past four weeks, there is light at the end of the tunnel as it is now in oversold territory and Wall Street analysts expect the company to report better earnings than they predicted earlier.” Financial and equities news site Zack’s shared some stock-lingo, namely, ELS’ Relative Strength Index (RSI) and why analysts think that the stock may now be poised to recover.What that Zack’s report apparently didn’t specifically mention in that report is that three corporate insiders have sold multiple millions of dollars of their own shares. ELS’ COO Patrick Waite, CEO Marguerite Nader, and CFO Paul Seavey – in that order – each dumped stocks in reasonably short order. To learn more about those facts and related analysis, one might need to turn to reports like the ones below on MHProNews.
1) There is speculation that perhaps those insiders coordinated their sales in a manner that helped fuel the price decline, but there is no known hard and direct evidence for that at this time. That said, the 3-month stock trend below provides some added factual and graphical insights. From 9.13.2024 and for about 4 weeks, the stock tumbled. Consider the implications of that, given that ELS is a higher profile member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), where Waite sits on the main board’s “Executive Committee.” Additionally, ELS’ Ron Bunce is also on the main MHI board of directors.
2) In our new fact-backed Patch commentaries, MHProNews has been addressing multiple examples of insiders at the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) behaving in apparently problematic if not scandalous or potentially even illegal manner.
Outside antitrust and consumer advocacy researcher Samuel “Sam” Strommen made the argument in a research paper for Knudson Law that Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) members appear to be colluding in a fashion that violates the Sherman Antitrust Act. Strommen, now an associate attorney for the Goodsell + Oviatt law firm, argued MHI itself appears to be involved in a scheme involving certain insider MHI linked brands that are “felony” antitrust violations. Since Strommen’s thesis, ELS, Sun Communities, and other MHI members have been hit by multiple class action antitrust suits.
5) The Google news search shown below is arguably incomplete, as MHProNews and MHLivingNews have issued several mainstream press releases that cite Samuel “Sam” Strommen’s antitrust research into manufactured housing and MHI. That said, on 10.13.2024, only sources associated with MHProNews/MHLivingNews and numbers of mainstream media outlets that have shared our press releases have covered this topic.
6) Additionally, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) has published numerous posts and issued press releases on the topics of DTS and the failure of MHI to get enhanced preemption enforced.
7) Given that two different artificial intelligence (AI) systems have analyzed the information available and have indicated that the reports linked provide apparent evidence for MHI and corporate insiders’ behavior that tends to limit manufactured housing opportunities, production and thus growth, and no reported or known push back to those reports has been issued by MHI, the evidence stands essentially uncontradicted. MHI leaders have once again declined the opportunity to directly discuss or debate their apparent failures.
8) When higher profile MHI members have pointed out the obvious disconnects, either directly or indirectly, about MHI’s pattern of (mis)behavior, it seems likely that only governmental probes and/or fresh legal action will likely cause the insiders at MHI to veer from their consolidation focused efforts.
9) MHProNews plans to utilize the Patch and another mainstream media release spotlighting the apparent nexus between industry underperformance and MHI’s curious, problematic and potentially illegal behavior. While it may be that several public officials are looking the other way at this time a new sheriff could be in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2025. The betting odds are in favor of the 45th President of the United States (POTUS) Donald J. Trump (R) defeating Kamala Harris (D), perhaps in a significant upset.
10) Stay tuned to the manufactured home industry’s reportedly most read, largest, and most complete source for manufactured housing “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use” – MHProNews – and our new series on the Patch to stay informed. As our 15th anniversary of publishing occurs this week, it is a good time to reflect on why manufactured housing is underperforming. Concerns related to ELS are apparently just part of a larger picture of collusion, that even the late Sam Zell pointed to, and only this publication and our related platforms have made that strong evidence-based case.
11) Programming note: MHProNews has been provided with a new special report on fresh research that will bolster previously published details by professional outsiders looking into manufactured housing. Watch for it. ##
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.