The Past Week's Notable Insider Buys Included Biotechs, Public Offerings, A SPAC And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets are near all-time highs.
• Once again, some insiders were taking advantage of recent public share offerings to add or bolster stakes.
• Biotechs and a special purpose acquisition company saw insider purchases, and a beneficial owner returned to the buy window.

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.

As we are between earnings-reporting seasons, plenty of insiders are free to add to their stakes, but that will change starting next week. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

Compass Inc COMP saw a 10% owner, as well as CEO Robert Reffkin, acquire about $79.4 million worth of shares altogether in the initial public offering. That was more than 4.41 million shares of this real estate broker purchased at $18 apiece. However, the stock ended the week trading at just $17.31 per share.

Special purpose acquisition company New Providence Acquisition Corp NPA saw two directors indirectly pick up 2.7 million shares at $10 apiece, costing them $27 million. This SPAC is due to become AST SpaceMobile, Inc. ASTS, which on last look had not begun trading yet.

Coursera Inc COUR also had a recent IPO. A beneficial owner purchased 300,000 shares last week at the offering price of $33 apiece. That added up to $9.9 million. Note that this education services provider's shares first went out at the end of March at $39 apiece but ended this past week trading a $53.70.

A number of insiders, including the chief financial and chief operating officers, recently bought shares of Nesco Holdings, Inc. NSCO, which is now known as Custom Truck One Source. The 1.48 million Nesco shares that were acquired altogether, at $5 apiece, totaled about $7.1 million.

A 10% owner of Molecular Templates Inc MTEM returned to the buy window in the past week. That owner added 700,000 more shares to its stake, bringing the total to more than 8.81 million shares. At prices that ranged from $8.22 to $9.44 per share, the latest transactions totaled around $6 million.

The 2 million CTI BioPharma Corp CTIC shares that a director purchased had a public offering price of $2.50 per share. This transaction added up to $5 million, and it almost doubled that director's stake. Note that the stock is down almost 20% year to date and closed Friday at $2.58.

Last week, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc CRNX priced a secondary offering at $16.44 a share, and a 10% owner took the opportunity to add to its stake. The more than 304,100 shares cost that owner nearly $5 million and lifted the stake to over 3.96 million shares. The stock closed on Friday at $17.07 a share.

A beneficial owner of Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. OSG did not wait for last week's fourth-quarter earnings report before buying nearly 847,000 shares for around $2.09 apiece. These purchases added up to more than $1.57 million and raised the owner's stake to over 15.2 million shares.

And biopharma Applied Molecular Transport Inc. AMTI had a director pick up 25,000 shares via trust last week. At a public offering price of $42 a share, this cost that director about $1.05 million, and it lifted the stake to over 1.01 million shares. Note that an executive sold 7,500 shares last week too.

See also: Elon Musk's Brother Kimbal Made $7M In Tesla Trades This Month

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at box and barrel giant Greif, Inc. GEF, real estate company Howard Hughes Corp HHC, specialty retailer Joann Inc JOAN and engineering and IT services provider Science Applications International Corp SAIC 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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