The week's biggest "insider buy" bought none of the stock — Seglem paid $20.88 for a unit trading at $8.75
On 3 November 2026, acquired 2,083,333 units at $20.88 — $43,499,993 — taking the reported post-transaction balance to 3,541,666. Every insider-buying screener ran it as the largest purchase of the week; Benzinga headlined it "Eye On Growth."
On the same day, KNOP common units traded at $8.75.
Form 4, KNOP, Seglem Trygve (director), txn 3 Nov 2026, accepted 4 Nov 16:15 ET — 2,083,333 units, code P, $20.88, holdings after 3,541,666.
Prior Form 4, txn 15 Jun 2026, accepted 16 Jun 2026 — 1,250,000 Series A Preferred Units, code P, $20.00 ($25.0m), indirect, "By Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS"; preferred balance 208,333 → 1,458,333. Same filing reports 9,661,255 common units held through the same entity, plus 90,368 through KNOT Offshore Partners GP LLC and 252,405 Class B.
Footnote chain: Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS owns 100% of the general partner; it is a 50/50 JV between NYK Holding (Europe) B.V. and TS Shipping Invest AS; TSSI is wholly owned by Seglem Holding AS, 70% owned by Seglem with the balance held by his immediate family.
The man who controls the sponsor put $43.5m of his own money into a shipping partnership trading at a fraction of NAV. Insider buying is the cleanest signal in the data because there is only one reason to buy. He already bought $25m in June; this doubles down. Screeners rank it first, and they rank it first for a good reason — nobody writes a $43.5m cheque for a company they expect to disappoint.
He did not buy KNOP. He financed it. These are Series A Preferred Units — the instrument that sits ahead of the common in the capital structure — bought through the entity that owns the general partner. The sponsor is supplying capital the public market will not supply at an acceptable price, and it is taking the senior security to do it. For a holder of the common, a sponsor who repeatedly chooses preferred over common is a warning, not a vote of confidence.
1 · The price gap settles the instrument question. He paid $20.88 on a day the common traded at $8.75 — 2.39×. There is no circumstance in which an insider pays 2.39× the market price for the same economics. The price alone proves a different security.
2 · The arithmetic proves which security. June's preferred balance was 1,458,333. Add November's 2,083,333 and you get 3,541,666 — the exact reported post-transaction balance. The balance therefore belongs to the Series A Preferred line, not the common line. Inference This is arithmetic from two filings, not a quoted field; I could not reach the primary document to read the security description directly.
3 · The number that is not there. The 9,661,255 common units held through the same entity are unchanged. He bought zero common. At $8.75 the same $43.5m would have bought roughly 4.97 million common units. He had the cash, the entity, the information and the opportunity, and he bought none. That is the fact that discriminates hardest, because it is the one a genuine confidence-buy cannot produce.
Note what is not evidence here: the dollar size, the "P" transaction code, and the 142.86% position increase the screeners report. All three are equally consistent with both readings. The P code covers negotiated and open-market purchases alike.
A Form 4 or 13D/A showing Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers AS or Seglem Holding buying KNOP common units in the open market. That single transaction would overturn the whole reading. Second falsifier: KNOP disclosing that the Series A proceeds funded an accretive vessel dropdown at a stated return, rather than refinancing, distribution support or working capital — that would make the preferred a growth instrument rather than a plug.
Series A Preferred held through Knutsen NYK: 208,333 before June → 1,458,333 (15 Jun, $25.0m at $20.00) → 3,541,666 (3 Nov, $43.5m at $20.88). That is 17× in under five months, and $68.5m of sponsor capital across two tranches. The second tranche is 74% larger than the first and priced 4.4% higher. Over the same period the common-unit line did not change once.