The Past Week's Notable Insider Buys: Amphenol, Aldeyra, Werewolf Therapeutics And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets are near all-time highs.
• Once again, some insiders have taken advantage of initial public offerings.
• A couple of chief executive officers were among the insiders buying shares this past week.

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 earnings reporting season still 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.

A number of 10% owners of and directors at Werewolf Therapeutics Inc HOWL bought into its initial public offer last week. The more than 4.84 million shares they bought for $16.00 apiece totaled over $77.98 million altogether. Shares of this cancer-focused biopharma company closed the week's trading at $14.25 apiece.

The purchase of 1.20 million Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc ALDX shares by a beneficial owner came before last week's first-quarter report. At the public offering price of $12.50 per share, those transactions totaled $15.00 million. Note that the stock ended the week trading at $12.48 a share.

U.K.-based Vaccitech PLC VACC saw a beneficial owner buy 600,000 shares and several other insiders pick up almost 146,900 altogether in this initial public offering. Though the offering price was $17.00 apiece, the shares went out at less than $14.00, and they ended the week at $13.53. These insider purchases added up to more than $12.37 million.

An Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc APAM director indirectly scooped up 98,000 shares of this Milwaukee-based asset manager recently. At prices ranging from $50.88 to $51.31 a share, the purchases totaled more than $5.00 million. The stock ended the last week trading up at $56.48 a share though.

A 10% owner added 185,800 more shares of AnaptysBio Inc ANAB last week to its stake, even though the San Diego-based biotech posted a first-quarter net loss. The shares were acquired indirectly for between $23.24 and $23.31 apiece, which totaled more than $4.32 million and lifted the owner's stake to more than 7.52 million shares.

CEO Ernest Rady of American Assets Trust, Inc AAT indirectly added almost 59,900 more shares to his stake in the past week for between $33.78 and $35.29 apiece. That cost him more than $2.07 million and lifted his stake to almost 6.14 million shares. Note that the real estate investment trust recently posted better than expected quarterly results.

Cyclerion Therapeutics Inc CYCN saw CEO Peter Hecht pay $2.10 to $2.61 apiece for about 698,000 of its shares. The total for these transactions was more than $1.69 million, and they lifted the stake to over 922,500 shares. Note that the biopharma company stock's last trade for Friday was posted at $2.76 a share.

In the wake of a mixed quarterly report, pet insurer Trupanion Inc TRUP had a director pick up 18,000 shares at prices that ranged from $77.73 to $80.99. These purchases added up to more than $1.43 million. The timing seems fortunate, as the stock ended the week at $83.28 per share.

Amphenol Corporation APH saw a director buck a selling trend and buy 20,000 shares at about $65.92 apiece. That cost him almost $1.32 million. Other insiders parted with over 1.16 million shares of this electronic components maker last week. The stock was last seen trading at $68.11 per share.

See also: Jeff Bezos Offloads $2.5B Amazon Shares, In First Major Sale For 2021

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at Eli Lilly And Co LLY, Intel Corporation INTC, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc KDP, Sunnova Energy International Inc NOVA, Rockwell Automation ROK and Weyerhaeuser Co WY 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.