The Past Week's Most Notable Insider Buys: Editas, Exxon Mobil, Wayfare And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets face uncertainty.
• A pair of chief executives and an executive board chair were among the insiders making purchases this week.
• A media company, an e-commerce play and a real estate investment trust saw notable insider purchasing of shares.

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 or the markets are near all-time highs.

Plenty of insiders are now adding to their stakes this earnings season. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

Ahead of last week's mixed earnings report, a director acquired a whopping 8.1 million Alphatec Holdings Inc ATEC shares. At $11.11 per share, the total came to about $90 million. Shares of this medtech company ended the week trading at $15.24, which represents a 37% or so gain for that director.

A director at online retailer Wayfair Inc W stepped up to the buy window late last week. He indirectly added 48,000 shares to his stake. At prices ranging from $279.85 to $286.91, that totaled more than $13.60 million. The stock ended the week well above that purchase price range, at $295.66 a share.

Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM has unveiled its climate change goals, and two directors picked up over $11.38 million worth of shares this past week. That was 202,000 shares costing between $56.24 and $57.50 apiece. The stock ended last week, which included an OPEC meeting, trading at $60.93 per share.

The more than 677,800 Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD shares acquired via family trust by one director this past week had prices ranging from $22.21 to $23.25 apiece. That cost that director over $15.39 million, and it raised his stake in the midstream energy company to more than 4.91 million shares.

A director indirectly purchased around 1.62 million Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. IRWD shares for $9.56 to $10.02 apiece last week. Those transactions cost the director nearly $15.85 million. The timing looks fortunate here, as the stock ended the week at $10.11 a share.

After a new Mack Cali Realty Corp CLI chief executive officer was named, a director indirectly purchased 442,000 shares of this real estate investment trust. At prices of around $14.51 per share, that totaled more than $6.41 million, and it lifted that director's stake to nearly 2.97 million shares.

The Teledyne Technologies Incorporated TDY executive board chair, Robert Mehrabian, scooped up 10,000 shares. Another executive bought 3,000 of them as well. At prices between $356.40 to and $366.26 per share, those transactions totaled over $4.68 million altogether. The stock closed at $387.15 a share on Friday.

Two Primo Water Corp PRMW directors and its CEO, Thomas Harrington, stepped up to the buy window early last week. At $14.37 to $14.70 apiece, the more than 468,900 shares of this bottled water provider they acquired altogether added up to almost $3.81 million.

While a number of other insiders were selling DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS INC. DISCA shares last week, its chief financial officer bucked the trend. The 40,000 shares he acquired, at $48.50 per share, totaled around $1.94 million. Note that the stock ended the week trading at $64.25 a share.

And new Editas Medicine Inc EDIT CEO James Mullen acquired 25,000 of the genome editing company's shares, while another director bought 5,800 shares last week. At share prices ranging from $45.48 to $46.44, that cost the two of them more than $1.42 million altogether.

See also: AstraZeneca Divests Entire 7.7% Stake In Moderna For $1B: The Times

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at Agree Realty Corporation ADC, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc CLF, Dominion Energy Inc D, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc KDP and Lendingtree Inc TREE 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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Photo with Kelly Clarkson courtesy Wayfair.