Notable Insider Buys Of The Past Week: Affirm, HEICO, Vector Group, Biotechs And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets face uncertainty.
• Insiders have been taking advantage of secondary and initial public offerings recently.
• Biotech companies are once again well represented on this list of notable insider share purchases.

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. Note that with earnings reporting season in full swing, buy windows for many insiders are closed.

Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

Biotech company Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc ALDX saw a 10% owner return and add almost 1.37 million shares to its stake. At a secondary offering price of $9.50 per share, the transaction totaled about $13 million. The stock closed most recently at $12.29 a share, after hitting a 52-week high of $14.62 earlier in the week. It is up about 79% year to date.

Cancer-testing products maker OncoCyte Corp OCX also had a 10% owner increase its stake last week. The more than 1.46 million shares acquired, at an offering price of about $3.42, added up to approximately $5 million. That raised that owner's stake to more than 16.17 million shares, compared to a total float of more than 57 million. The stock closed most recently at $4.76 per share, which is more than 39% higher than the purchase price.

A beneficial owner took advantage of the Affirm Holdings Inc AFRM initial public offering, indirectly acquiring 75,000 shares at $49 apiece. That totaled less than $3.68 million. CNBC host Jim Cramer discussed the fintech's IPO, as shares had doubled in price. They were changing hands at $119.95 as last week came to a close, up about 10% on the day and more than 25% since going public. Note that Peter Thiel is one of the founders of the fund that made this purchase.

Driven Brands Holdings Inc DRVN saw two executives acquire more than 32,200 shares altogether. Prices ranged from $26.98 per share to $30.08, which was above the recent IPO price of $22. The transactions totaled over $953,500. Shares of the Charlotte, North Carolina-automotive repair and maintenance services provider were last seen trading at $29.79 apiece. That compares with the post-IPO high of $32.95 a share.

Adverum Biotechnologies Inc ADVM CEO Laurent Fischer and another director recently acquired 18,600 shares of this clinical-stage gene therapy company altogether. At prices ranging from $11.44 to $11.60 per share, that cost them more than $214,300. These purchases came in the wake of the company's recently released 2021 business outlook. The stock ended last week almost 18% higher and was last seen trading at $13.39 a share.

A newly appointed officer and board member recently picked up 15,000 more Vector Group Ltd VGR shares. At prices ranging from $12.04 to $12.20 per share, those transactions totaled $181,500. His stake in the Miami-based cigarette maker and real estate company was listed as shy of 444,000 shares. The stock closed most recently at $12.16 apiece, still within the above purchase price range. Shares have traded as high as $13.86 in the past year.

And CEO Laurans Mendelson of Heico Corp HEI recently picked up more than 1,000 shares of this aerospace and electronics company. At a share price of around $118.63, that cost him more than $125,000 and raised his stake to over 15,000 shares. Note that two other insiders sold 3,300 shares altogether recently as well. The share price pulled back about 5% last week and closed at $128.70 on Friday. That was still well above Mendelson's purchase price.

See also: Plug Power CEO Nets $35.4M In Planned Sale Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Company's Stock

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at German American Bancorp., Inc. GABC, Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI, Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc WOOF, Phillips 66 Partners LP PSXP and York Water Co YORW was reported in the past week as well.

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

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Image: Courtesy of Affirm