Insider Buys Of The Week: GE, Hasbro, Tesla

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• Some notable CEOs were making insider buys last week.
• Shares of one of these companies have hit multiyear lows.

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 a few notable insider purchases reported in the past week.

Tesla

Tesla Inc TSLA saw its founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, add to his stake. At prices that ranged from $333.69 to $335.99, the more than 29,800 shares acquired in the past week cost him more than $9.99 million. Note that an additional $20 million or so of common stock is expected to close this week.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker traded lower on news of this purchase. But the stock closed Monday at $341.40, above the top of Musk's purchase price range. The 52-week low of $244.59 back in April compares with the 52-week high of $387.46 reached in August. The consensus price target is down at $324.37.

See Also: Elon Musk Buys $10M In Tesla Shares: Is It A Buy Or Sell Signal?

General Electric

General Electric Company GE board chair and CEO Larry Culp put his money where his mouth is last week as the stock traded at a multiyear low. At $9.55 to $9.90 apiece, the more than 225,000 shares of this struggling conglomerate acquired totaled nearly $2.2 million. That brought his stake to more than 585,000 shares, compared with around 9 million shares outstanding.

Some analysts have made the contrarian call on this out-of-favor stock. GE shares closed Monday at $9.28, or more than 13 percent lower in the past week, while the Dow Jones industrials were up about 4 percent. The consensus price target is $14.66, but shares have traded as high as $20.75 in the past year.

Hasbro

Brian Goldner, CEO and board chair at Hasbro, Inc. HAS, also stepped up to the buy window this past week. He picked up 11,000 shares at prices ranging from $91.34 to $92.00 apiece. That cost him almost $1.01 million. His stake was last seen at a bit more than a million shares.

The toymaker recently posted disappointing third-quarter results. The stock closed Monday at $97.87, which is a nice pop from the above-mentioned purchase prices. It has traded as low as $79.00 and as high as $109.60 in the past 52 weeks. The consensus price target is up at $105.79.