Notable Insider Buys: Avis, Dynavax And Formula One

Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
Beneficial owner Berkshire Hathaway made a huge purchase last week.
A director took advantage of a coronavirus vaccine contender's secondary offering.

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 from it. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly during periods of uncertainty.

Insiders continued to add shares despite overall market volatility and global economic gloom. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week.

Formula One Group

Liberty Media Formula One FWONA saw 10% owner Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) add nearly 3.17 million shares of this motorsport company to its stake. At per-share prices ranging from $33.07 to $37.05, that totaled almost $112.42 million.

Shares of this Liberty Media subsidiary popped more than 9% in last week's trading to end at $33.82 apiece, within the purchase price range above. The share price is up about 75% since its year-to-date low during the pandemic panic selling back in March. The analysts' consensus target price is up at $45.53.

Avis Budget

Beneficial owner SRS Investment Management purchased almost 500,000 Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR shares of this New Jersey-based company last week. Share prices ranged from $18.57 to $20.59 apiece, and the total for these transactions was more than $9.88 million.

Competitor Hertz Global recently filed for bankruptcy and will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Avis shares ended last week up nearly 29% to $21.53, above the purchase prices mentioned above. The share price is more than 77% higher since its year-to-date low in March.

Dynavax

A Dynavax Technologies Corporation DVAX director took advantage of a secondary offering last week. He indirectly bought a million shares for $5 apiece, which cost him $5 million. He is also a director at Mersana Therapeutics Inc MRSN and bought more than 3 million of those shares back in April.

Dynavax is among those companies in a race for a vaccine for COVID-19. Its shares soared more than 19% last week and closed most recently at $6.12 a share. It's now about 154% higher than the year-to-date low in March. The consensus price target is up at $16, though only two analysts were surveyed.

In addition, note that there was some amount of insider buying at Green Dot Corporation GDOT, Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC JAZZ and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL last week as well.