Notable Insider Buys of the Past Week: Foot Locker, Icahn Enterprises, Kraft Heinz And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors when markets face uncertainty.
• This past week, some insiders added to their stakes in REITs, a specialty retailer and a packaged foods giant.
• Some insiders were making return trips to the buy window to increase their stakes.

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 before and after the elections and as the pandemic worsens.

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

A Foot Locker, Inc. FL beneficial owner returned lasts week to purchase almost 1.15 million more shares of this footwear retailer at $36.94 to $39.00 apiece. That totaled less than $43.65 million, and it raised that owner's stake to more than 12.72 million shares. The total float is reported to be over 96 million shares. The company also announced that its chief financial officer will step down this coming April.

In the past week, residential real estate investment trust (REIT) American Homes 4 Rent ANH saw a beneficial owner pick up 152,000 of its shares via trust. At prices of $28.82 to $29.25 per share, that added up to more than $9.93 million. That owner's 16.93 million-share stake compares with a float of more than 270 million shares. Note that a couple of other insiders parted with 139,500 shares last week as well.

A Multiplan Corp MPLN director indirectly bought more than 826,200 shares of this New York-based health care company. At $6.89 to $7.02 per share, the total for these transactions came to over $5.78 million. The stock also saw some unusual options activity last week. It ended the week at $7.59 per share, so the director's purchase seems fortunately timed. His stake was up to more than 3.35 million shares.

A director at Kraft Heinz Co KHC indirectly scooped up 90,000 shares of this packaged foods giant in the middle of last week. At prices ranging from $33.19 to $33.25 per share, that cost him almost $2.99 million. Shares of this popular pandemic stock pick (with its dividend yield of about 4.7%) ended last week's trading at $34.12 per share, so this director's purchases also appear to be well timed.

CEO Earnest Rady returned to the buy window last week and paid around $29.00 each for over 50,000 more American Assets Trust, Inc AAT shares. The indirectly purchased shares cost him more than $1.45 million, and these transactions brought his stake in this San Diego-based REIT to over 1.67 million shares. After a gain of around 3% in the past week, the shares were last seen trading at $31.08 apiece, which was above Rady's most recent purchase prices.

An Icahn Enterprises LP IEP director has acquired more than 16,700 shares of this Florida-based conglomerate. The purchase prices ranged from $49.54 to $50.25 per share, which cost that director more than $836,600 early last week. The shares added less than 2% last week and were last seen trading at $50.98 apiece. Note that the stock has traded mostly between $45 and $55 since March and is down about 17% since the start of the year.

See also: Bosch Reduces Nikola Stake To Fall Below SEC's Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirement Of 5%

Note that there also was some smaller amount of insider buying at biotechs Amarin Corporation plc AMRN, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. FOLD and Biogen Inc BIIB, at utilities Black Hills Corp BKH and Consolidated Edison, Inc. ED, at energy companies CNX Resources Corp CNX and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD and at consumer products makers Coty Inc COTY and Hormel Foods Corp HRL.

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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