Key points
- Four Ameresco (AMRC) insiders bought stock on the open market between August 21 and 25: founder and chief executive George Sakellaris and directors Brian Cox, Joseph Sutton, and Jennifer Miller.
- Together they spent about $559,000, at prices from $20.87 to $22.03, near the stock's lowest levels of the year and just under its book value.
- It's a second round. The same names bought about $1.18 million near $25 in early August, so this batch came at prices about 15 percent lower.
- Every purchase carries SEC transaction code P, a discretionary open-market buy made at the day's market price.
Two weeks ago I wrote about a new Ameresco (AMRC) director and the company's founder putting about $1.18 million of their own money into the clean-energy stock near $25 a share. The question I've always sat with after a story like that is whether it was a one-time gesture or the start of something. Ameresco answered it this week. Through late August the buying continued, the stock kept sliding, and the same insiders bought more as it fell.
On August 21, director Brian Cox bought 4,625 shares of Ameresco for $100,085. Three days later, on August 24, founder and chief executive George Sakellaris added 10,000 shares for $214,297; director Joseph Sutton bought 9,700 for $202,439, and director Jennifer Miller bought 2,000 for $41,920. The four reported these purchases in Form 4 filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 25 and 26. Every trade carried transaction code P, the SEC's tag for a purchase an insider chooses to make. The prices all fell between $20.87 and $22.03.
The timing is what makes this batch stand out against the first. In early August, Cox and Sakellaris bought near $25. Now they're back, joined by Sutton and Miller, and all four paid about 15 percent less. Cox is the clearest case. He built his whole 44,325-share stake, worth about $1.1 million, in the open market this month across two purchases. He paid less the second time. Buying more of a stock after its price falls is a particular kind of conviction. It's a pointed move, and it tells you Cox stands by that first purchase at the higher price too.
These same directors sat on the other side of the market in the spring. In May, Jennifer Miller sold 10,000 shares near $32. Francis Wisneski, another Ameresco director, sold 10,000 near $30 that same week. Back in February, a third director sold 16,100 near $34. So the boardroom now buying AMRC at $21 was releasing stock in the low $30s only a few months earlier.
Most of those spring sales moved through 10b5-1 plans. A 10b5-1 plan is a selling schedule an executive sets up months ahead and then locks in, built precisely so a sale reads as calendar mechanics, and there's a clean paper trail behind it. I walked through how they work in this piece. The August purchases work the opposite way. An open-market buy like this happens because the insider looked at the day's price and wanted the stock. Jennifer Miller shows both sides inside one year: a scheduled sale at $32 in May, a hands-on buy at $21 in August. On the year she remains a net seller. The direction of her latest move still flipped.
Ameresco peaked near $45 last October, then fell for months, reaching $18.38 on July 29. Part of that traced to a broad exit from clean-energy names as federal tax credits for wind and solar head toward a phase-out. Part of it was closer to home in Framingham, Massachusetts. Ameresco borrows heavily to build and own its energy projects, and through the first half of 2026 the company spent faster than it earned.
Earnings on August 3 lifted the stock for a day. Ameresco reported second-quarter revenue of $515.5 million, up 9 percent and ahead of estimates. Its order backlog reached a record $6.7 billion, helped by $1.2 billion of new data center awards. Management raised its full-year profit outlook. AMRC jumped about 23 percent on August 4, then gave most of it back over the next two weeks, drifting down to the same zone where the four insiders started buying. Near $22 today, Ameresco trades just under its book value, so the market values the company below the accounting worth of what it owns after its debts. George Sakellaris and his directors bought into that setting, with the stock near its lowest levels of the year.
A record like this is narrow. Four insiders buying is four people's read on one week, and they're often wrong at moments like this, especially at a company still spending cash to grow. George Sakellaris already held more than two million shares, so his $214,297 barely shifts his own stake. What the filings pin down is concrete: through a falling August, Ameresco's founder and three of its directors committed more of their own money, and they did so after the same board spent the spring selling higher. These filings are a record, not a forecast. Whether copying insider buys pays off over time is a separate question, and we went through the data in this one. Ameresco's full filing history sits on its filings page.
Sources
- George P. Sakellaris Form 4, Ameresco, Inc., filed with the SEC August 26, 2026
- Joseph W. Sutton Form 4, Ameresco, Inc., filed August 26, 2026
- Jennifer L. Miller Form 4, Ameresco, Inc., filed August 26, 2026
- Brian C. Cox Form 4, Ameresco, Inc., filed August 25, 2026
- Ameresco Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results, investor relations release
- Live and historical market data for AMRC as of August 26, 2026
This is general market information, not investment advice. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making any investment decision.
