Last Week's Notable Insider Buys: Kraft, IBM, Vertex And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors when markets face uncertainty.
• Insiders at some consumer products companies were adding to their stakes this past week.
• A few biotech companies saw insiders acquiring some shares as well.

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 when there is uncertainty in the markets, as there was both before and after the elections.

Though buy windows remained closed for some insiders during earnings-reporting season, plenty of others continued to purchase shares despite market volatility and economic uncertainty. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week.

A Kraft Heinz Co KHC director indirectly purchased almost 13.85 million shares at $30.38 apiece early last week. That cost him $420.74 million. Note that a beneficial owner sold nearly 29.16 million shares of this Pittsburgh-based packaged foods giant last week as well.

Radio-frequency identification devices and software maker IMPINJ Inc PI saw a beneficial owner both pick up and part with more than 391,700 shares indirectly. At $31.09 per share, the transactions totaled nearly $12.18 million each. An executive also sold some shares earlier this month.

Two directors at Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings Inc CERE each indirectly picked up nearly 332,300 shares of this clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. At a per-share price of $10.30, that cost them more than $11.71 million altogether. Each stake was listed as being over 60.63 million shares.

Two directors at Camping World Holdings Inc CWH bought more than 202,000 shares altogether last week. At $24.10 to $24.65 per share, that totaled around $4.96 million. Note that Chief Executive Officer Marcus Lemonis purchased more than 9,000 shares in early September.

A Multiplan Corp MPLN director went to the buy window at the end of the week. Some 741,000 shares of this services provider to the health care industry were scooped up at around $6.60 apiece, which cost that director more than $4.88 million and lifted the stake to over 28.72 million shares.

A director paid between $216.01 and $219.00 each for 15,000 Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX shares late last week. That totaled more than $3.26 million, and it more than doubled his stake in this Boston-based biopharmaceutical company focused on treating cystic fibrosis.

A Hanesbrands Inc. HBI director added 80,000 more shares of this North Carolina-based apparel company last week. At $12.65 to $12.89 per share, that cost him almost $1.01 million and lifted his stake to over 240,500 shares. Note that an executive sold over 71,000 shares in October.

See also: Securities Lawyer, Market Pros On Pfizer CEO's Stock Sale: 'PR Nightmare'

Opko Health Inc. OPK saw CEO Phillip Frost return to the buy window early in the week. At $3.02 to $3.32 apiece, the 250,000 shares of this Miami-based health care company that he acquired added up to more than $794,600. The stake of this frequent buyer was up to over 191.07 million shares.

Multilevel marketing company Tupperware Brands Corporation TUP saw its executive vice chair add shares to his stake. At prices ranging from $28.60 to $28.77, the 27,500 shares cost about $787,600. Note that another director parted with 1,000 shares in the past week as well.

And IBM IBM had a director acquire over 4,200 shares of this old-school tech giant early last week. At about $117.86 per share, that totaled more than $498,700. Note that six other directors purchased more than 21,400 shares altogether in recent weeks for less than $113 apiece.

Note that there also was some smaller amount of insider buying at Green Dot Corporation GDOT, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation LPX, New Relic Inc NEWR and Perrigo Company PLC PRGO posted last week.

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.