Insider Buys Of The Week: Apollo Global, Biogen And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• A top biotech and a private equity outfit saw notable insider buys this past week.
• Top executives picked up shares in the wake of earnings reports as well.

Conventional wisdom says that insiders and 10 percent owners really only buy shares of a company for one reason -- they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit from it. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly during periods of uncertainty.

Here's a look at some notable insider purchases reported in the past week.

Biogen

Biogen Inc BIIB had a director buy 48,000 shares of this biotechnology company late last week. The share price for this purchase was $269.91, and the total for the transaction was more than $12.95 million. The acquisition increased that director's stake to more than 461,000 shares.

Wall Street is becoming more bullish on Biogen due to its M&A prospects. Shares popped almost 5 percent last week and ended at $276.80, so this insider buy seems well timed. The analysts' mean price target for shares is $371.82.

See Also: This Week's Top 10 Largest Insider Buys And Sells

Apollo Global

Apollo Global Management LLC APO saw beneficial owner Tiger Global Management add to its stake again. At $28.10 apiece, the 50,000 shares of this investment manager acquired in the past week totaled more than $1.4 million. That brought the stake to more than 34.42 million shares, compared with a total float of about 198.9 million.

The New York-based private equity firm is expected to reveal its first-quarter results on May 3. Its shares ended the past week trading at $28.47, or more than 2 percent lower for the period. The S&P 500 was down fractionally in the past week. Apollo's consensus price target is $39.14, and shares have traded as high as $37.35 in the past year.

Home Bancshares

Home Bancshares Inc HOMB saw its board chair, John Allison, step up to the buy window this past week. The 20,000 shares of this Conway, Arkansas-based bank acquired, at a per-share price of $21.32, cost him $426,400. The purchase brought his stake to around 5.16 million shares.

Home Bancshares recently posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Shares ended the past week's trading with a more than 4 percent gain, recovering much of the sell-off back in March. Friday's close was $23.60, handily higher than Allison's purchase price. The mean price target is $27.43, and the stock has traded as high as $26.53 in the past 52 weeks.

See Also: Cramer Continues Warming Up To AMD After Listening To CEO

Superior Energy Services

And Superior Energy Services, Inc. SPN saw President and CEO David Dunlap scoop up 30,000 shares of this oilfield services company this past week. At share prices between $10.87 and $10.90, the transactions totaled almost $326,700. The new total stake was listed as more than 660,400 shares.

Early in the week, Superior posted a bigger than expected net loss for the first quarter. Shares closed the week at $10.78 apiece, just a bit less than the CEO's purchase price. The stock is still up more than 6 percent year to date. Shares have traded as high as $12.84 in the past year.