The Past Week's Notable Insider Buys: Chipotle, Krispy Kreme, Petco Health And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets are near all-time highs.


• Some insiders were making return trips to the buy window last week.


• Some chief executives were adding to their stakes as well.

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 earnings-reporting season over, many insiders are free once more to buy or sell shares. Here are a few of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

The Asana Inc ASAN chief executive officer, Dustin Moskovitz, returned to the buy window last week to add 750,000 more shares for $91.06 to $100.00 apiece. That cost him almost $72.37 million, and it raised his stake in the workplace management company to 4.7 million shares. Moskovitz is a 10% owner and last purchased shares at the end of June.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG saw Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management buy over 25,400 shares last week. That added up to more than $48.56 million, at a per-share price of $1,909.68. Note that Pershing Square also bought almost 15,800 of the shares in the previous week. The stock is up around 44% year to date but has met resistance near $1920 in recent weeks.

Alset Ehome International Inc AEI founder Heng Fai Chan indirectly purchased more than 12.15 million shares of this real estate developer. At about $1.23 apiece, the cost for those shares totaled about $15 million. With a stake of some 22.19 million shares, he is also a 10% owner. The stock ended last week's trading a $2.51 a share, about 75% above the founder's purchase price.

The purchase of around 288,900 Goodrx Holdings Inc GDRX shares by a 10% owner at prices ranging from $39.63 to $42.05 apiece totaled more than $11.85 million. Note that this owner also bought over 889,600 shares in the previous week, and the stake was up to nearly 8.8 million shares on last look. Shares ended the week at $42.39, above the owner's purchase price range.

North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme Inc DNUT saw a beneficial owner acquire more than 669,600 additional shares. At $14.80 to $16.19 apiece, that totaled around $10.67 million. That owner, JAB Holdings, has been buying shares since mid-August, and its stake is up to nearly nine-million shares. The stock ended the week at $15.97, within the latest purchase price range.

Kodiak Sciences Inc KOD had a beneficial owner add about 57,500 shares to its stake. The transactions totaled more than $5.36 million, at share prices ranging from $92.86 to $93.92, and lifted the stake to over 13.2 million shares. Note that this owner also scooped up almost $19.7 million worth of shares in August. The stock ended last week at $96.39 per share.

Sensient Technologies Corporation SXT saw a beneficial owner return to the buy window to acquire almost 54,500 more shares indirectly for $87.88 to $89.58 apiece. That cost that owner more than $4.82 million and lifted its stake in this Milwaukee-based producer of ingredients for food and cosmetics to over 4.5 million shares. There are about 42 million shares outstanding.

A GMS Inc GMS 10% owner picked up 40,000 more shares at prices ranging from $49.77 to $51.25 apiece. These latest purchases added up to more than $2 million. That owner also picked up more than $10 million in shares of the building products maker in the previous week. However, the stock end last week at $47.36 a share, which is below the latest purchase price range.

CEO Ron Coughlin of Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc WOOF purchased 46,600 shares early last week. At prices ranging from $21.63 to $21.77 per share, that cost him more than $1.01 million. Shares of this specialty retailer have fallen more than 21% since its initial public offering early in the year and were last seen near the top of the above purchase price range.

See also: 4 Stocks Insiders Are Selling

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at Bright Health, Heico, Molson Coors, ON Semiconductor, Rocky Mountain Chocolate, SelectQuote and TransDigm was reported last week as well.

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

Keep up with all the latest breaking news and trading ideas by following Benzinga on Twitter.