Notable Insider Buys Seen In The Past Week: Green Brick, Intel, Teledyne And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets face uncertainty.
• Insiders have been taking advantage of secondary offerings recently.
• An outgoing CEO picked up some shares, as did a renowned hedge fund manager.

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.

Franchise Group Inc FRG, the parent of Liberty Tax, Vitamin Shoppe and other chains, had a 10% owner increase its stake last week. The 757,000 shares acquired, at a share price of $34.95, totaled more than $26.45 million. That raised that owner's stake to more than 6.39 million shares, compared to a total float of more than 26 million. The stock closed most recently at $36.28 per share, which is almost 4% higher than the purchase price.

Homebuilder Green Brick Partners Inc GRBK saw director and hedge fund manager David Einhorn add 850,000 shares in its secondary offering. At a share price of $20.55, that transaction totaled more than $17.46 million. But note that Einhorn sold 6.85 million shares as well, which netted him over $140.76 million. The stock slipped more than 12% last week and closed on Friday at $19.90 per share.

A beneficial owner took advantage of an Athira Pharma Inc ATHA secondary offering, indirectly acquiring more than 311,100 shares at $22.50 apiece. That totaled shy of $7 million and boosted the stake to over 3.42 million shares. Those shares were changing hands at $21.43 as last week came to a close, below that owner's purchase price. Note that this same owner bought more than $13 million worth of Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc ALDX shares recently.

Innoviva Inc INVA has increased its stake in Armata Pharmaceuticals Inc ARMP. The more than 1.86 million shares added cost it around $6.07 million, at $3.25 per share. Shares of Armata were last seen trading at $4.91 apiece, which is about a 51% increase from the purchase price. Note that Innoviva is Armata's largest stakeholder.

The Teledyne Technologies Incorporated TDY executive board chair, Robert Mehrabian, acquired 10,000 shares via trust of this industrial conglomerate last week. At prices ranging from $365.36 to $368.91 per share, that cost him about $3.66 million. These purchases came in the wake of the company's better than expected earnings report. The stock ended last week more than 8% lower and was last seen trading at $357.01 a share.

Outgoing CEO Bob Swan picked up more than 27,200 of additional Intel Corporation INTC shares, and the chief financial officer also bought almost 9,100 shares last week. At prices ranging from $55.11 to $56.10 per share, those transactions totaled more than $2.01 million. Swan's stake in the semiconductor giant was listed as over 345,300 shares. The stock closed most recently at $55.51 apiece, still within the above purchase price range. The stock is down more than 16% from a year ago.

And co-CEO Bryant Riley of B. Riley Financial Inc RILY returned and purchased 30,000 additional shares of this Los Angeles-based financial services provider. Another director bought over 2,000 shares as well. At prices ranging from $48.95 to $56.10 per share, that cost them more than $1.55 million. The stock closed at $48.20 on Friday. Note that the firm sold shares of Franchise Group last week and is a beneficial owner.

See also: Reddit-Fueled Rally In Mall Stock Allows Its Largest Investor To Cash Out

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at Alcoa Corp AA, Fastenal Company FAST and FuelCell Energy Inc FCEL 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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