Notable Insider Buys Last Week: Avis Budget, SmileDirectClub And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors during periods of uncertainty.
• A number of chief executive officers were putting their money where the mouth is and buying shares last week.
• Health care companies were well represented among last week's most notable insider buys.

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.

SmileDirectClub Inc SDC CEO David Katzman added almost 1.28 million shares of this teledentistry company last week, while three other insiders bought over 698,000 altogether as well. At prices ranging from $7.63 to $8.51 per share, these transactions totaled more than $15.93 million.

Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR saw a 10% owner add to its stake once more. The more than 289,600 additional shares were indirectly acquired for $34.31 to $35.05 each. That totaled over $10.01 million. This same beneficial owner bought more than $11.43 million worth of the stock in the prior week.

The Invesco Ltd. IVZ chief executive, Martin Flanagan, and another director also stepped up to the buy window. At prices ranging from $10.11 to $10.57 apiece, the 304,000 or so shares of this investment manager they acquired totaled around $3.10 million. Note that Flanagan's shares were purchased via trust.

CEO Douglas Bryant of Quidel Corporation QDEL and another director bought a combined 12,700 shares of this diagnostic healthcare products maker at $155.60 to $177.51 apiece. That totaled more than $2.15 million. Bryant also purchased 5,000 shares earlier in August.

A BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. BMRN director picked up 12,800 shares of this biotechnology company early last week. At prices ranging from $77.78 to $78.91 per share, that cost the director more than $1.00 million and brought his stake to over 30,700 shares.

See Also: Insider Buys Camping World's Stock

The Baker Hughes Co BKR CEO, Lorenzo Simonelli, added to his stake last week. The more than 71,200 shares of this Houston-based oilfield services provider were priced at $14.08 to $14.19 each. That cost him around $1.00 million and raised his share count to more than 287,000.

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at Camping World Holdings Inc CWH, Coty Inc COTY, New Fortress Energy Inc NFE and Wendys Co WEN was posted last week as well.