Notable Insider Buys In The Past Week: AbbVie, Kraft Heinz And More

Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.

A packaged food giant and two drugmakers saw notable insider buying activity this past week.

Some of this insider buying occurred alongside insider sales.

Conventional wisdom says that insiders and 10% owners really only buy shares of a company for one reason — they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly with markets near all-time highs.

The following are some notable insider purchases reported in the past week. 

Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz Co KHC saw two directors buying some shares last week. At $28.27 to $28.60 apiece, the almost 3.75 million shares reportedly acquired altogether totaled more than $107.11 million. Note that the larger of the two purchases was pursuant to Rule 144(g).

Also note a large sale of shares this past week by a beneficial owner. Shares were trading at $28.14 apiece on last look, just below the above purchase price range. The stock has changed hands as high as $58.08 a share in the past year, but the analysts' consensus price target is just $28.39.

Acadia Pharmaceuticals

A beneficial owner of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. ACAD purchased more than 1.56 million shares of this biopharmaceutical company. At $40 per share, the transaction totaled $62.5 million. That brought the stake to almost 37.5 million shares in a total float of over 144 million.

The purchase was part of a 6.25-million share common stock offering last week. The stock was last seen trading at $34.35 a share in a 52-week range of $22.94 to $39.74.

The consensus analyst price target is $44.83, with a consensus recommendation to buy shares.

See also: Insider Buying Vs. Insider Selling: What Numbers Really Matter For Traders?

Scientific Games

A Scientific Games Corp SGMS director stepped up to the buy window midweek.

That director picked up 100,000 more shares of this maker of slot machines and other gaming products at $21.83 to $22.62 apiece last week. The transaction totaled more than $2.24 million.

Note that another director sold more than 45,000 shares at about the same time. The stock closed most recently at $22.97, which is above the purchase price range above.

Shares have traded as high as $29.95 in the past 52 weeks, but analysts currently anticipate the price will only go to $29.44.

AbbVie

After two executives bought AbbVie Inc ABBV shares in August, a vice chair now has stepped up to the buy window.

At $69.86 to $70.73 apiece, the 25,000 shares acquired most recently totaled more than $1.76 million. This purchase was made pursuant to a plan complying with Rule 10b5-1(c).

Investors hate the deal to buy Allergan, according to Barron's. AbbVie shares ended the week at $72.39, well above the purchase price range, after climbing more than 3% in the past week. The consensus price target is $86.27, but shares have traded as high as $96.60 in the past 52 weeks.

See also: Patrick Byrne Sells All of His Overstock Shares Following Crypto Dividend Scheme

Also note that a beneficial owner's buying streak at Sunrun Inc RUN continued in the past week as well.

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

Keep up with all the latest breaking news and trading ideas by following Benzinga on Twitter.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: NewsInsider Trades
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!