Notable Insider Buys: Guess, FedEx And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors during periods of uncertainty.
• The CEO of an apparel company has stepped up to the buy window.
• A notable director doubled his stake in a delivery services giant.

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 economic uncertainty. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week.

Guess

Guess?, Inc. GES saw its chief executive, Carlos Alberini, purchase 100,000 shares recently via family trust. At per-share prices between $9.85 and $10.39, that totaled more than $1.01 million, and it brought his stake to almost 239,000 shares. The total float is more than 41 million shares.

Hedge funds reportedly have been shedding Guess recently. The stock jumped more than 8% last week and was last seen at $10.55 a share. That is above Alberini's purchase price range. The share price is up more than 66% since the year-to-date low during the pandemic panic-selling back in March.

See Also: Insider Buys And Sells: What To Know And How To Leverage Using Benzinga Pro

Frequency Therapeutics

A Frequency Therapeutics Inc FREQ director recently indirectly acquired more than 55,500 shares of this biotech for $18.00 apiece. That totaled just shy of $1 million. Note that two executives were selling smaller batches of shares throughout June and July.

Oppenheimer initiated coverage on the stock last week with an Outperform rating. Shares closed down around 4% for the week to $22.48 a share, still well above the director's purchase price. The share price is more than 28% higher since the beginning of the year and has a consensus target price of $34.00.

FedEx

A director purchased 2,200 FedEx Corporation FDX shares mid-week. The average share price was $164.53, and the total for the transaction came to more than $361,900. That director, Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison, effectively doubled his stake.

FedEx posted strong quarterly results earlier this month due to a surge in ground shipments. Its shares ended last week essentially flat at $165.04, which just tops the above purchase price. The stock is more than 82% higher since its year-to-date low in March, and it compares to a $170.96 consensus price target.

Note that there was some amount of insider buying at Alcoa Corp AA, Charles Schwab Corporation SCHW and Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI was reported last week as well.