Last Week's Notable Insider Buys Included Evergy, StoneMor, Tattooed Chef And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets are near all-time highs.
• Even with a new earnings season underway, insiders were still making notable share purchases.
• Some of those insiders made return trips to the buy window, and a couple of chief executives were among the buyers too.

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.

Note that, with the new earnings reporting season underway, many insiders are prohibited from buying or selling shares. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

Evergy Inc EVRG saw a director indirectly acquire more than $113.17 million worth of shares mid-week. That was nearly 2.27 million shares of this Kansas City-based electric utility purchased at $49.87 apiece. The stock popped 4% last week and was last seen trading at $63.29 per share.

San Diego-based Reneo Pharmaceuticals Inc RPHM had two directors and two beneficial owners pick up more than 1.73 million shares altogether at the initial public offering price of $15 apiece. That cost almost $26 million. However, the stock ended the week's trading at $13 per share.

Stonemor Inc STON saw a director indirectly purchase more than 5.52 million shares last week at $2.20 apiece. That added up to around $12.15 million and lifted his stake in this funeral home and cemetery operator to over 88.63 million shares. The total float is more than 106 million shares, and the stock ended the week trading at $2.18 a share.

The more than 121,200 GMS Inc GMS shares that a 10% owner indirectly purchased last week had prices ranging from $42.19 to $44.20 apiece. These transactions added up to over $5.26 million. Note that this owner also bought 115,000 shares of the building products provider at the end of March.

Chief Executive Officer Patrick Soon-Shiong bought shares of NantHealth Inc NH last week. The almost 1.69 million shares that were indirectly acquired, at $2.96 apiece, totaled about $5 million. While this insider buy helped lift shares of the healthcare IT company, they still ended the week at $2.58.

Late last week, Tattooed Chef Inc TTCF had a director pay $10 a share in a privately negotiated transaction. The more than 250,000 shares cost that director $2.50 million. Note that CEO Salvatore Galletti also parted with 800,000 shares at the same price. The most recent share price was $18.71.

A 10% owner of Molecular Templates Inc MTEM returned to the buy window in the past week. That owner added 200,000 more shares to its stake, bringing the total to more than 9.35 million shares. At prices that ranged from $7.80 to $8.38 per share, the latest transactions added up to more than $2.43 million. Note that this owner bought 700,000 shares in the prior week.

CEO Albert Bolles and three other insiders at Landec Corporation LNDC stepped up to the buy window after its quarterly report. Altogether, they picked up almost 265,600 shares for around $10.01 to $10.98 apiece. These purchases added up to more than $2.67 million. The share price on Friday's close was $11.20.

And a Nuvation Bio Inc NUVB director indirectly acquired 164,500 shares last week. At prices of $9.48 to $10.28 a share, this cost that director more than $1.58 million, and it lifted the stake to over 6.99 million shares. Note that this director bought 300,000 shares in the previous week.

See also: Richard Branson Sheds Virgin Galactic Stake By $150M

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at bioharma Liquidia Corp LQDA, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc MACK, property insurer Old Republic International Corporation ORI, Texas Pacific Land Corp TPL and utility 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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Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash.