The Past Week's Notable Insider Buys Included Continental Resources, Skillz And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets are uncertain or near highs.


• Current and former executives were adding to their stakes in the past week.


• A mobile games platform provider and a recent IPO were among companies that saw notable insider purchases.

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 beginning to wane, the windows for some insiders to buy or sell shares may still be closed. Here are a few of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

The board chair of insurer Arch Capital Group Ltd. ACGL indirectly acquired more than 484,500 shares late last week. At share prices ranging from $41.19 to $41.28, that cost that director around $19.98 million and raised the stake to more than 1.63 million shares. Note that an officer also sold about 32,000 shares last week. Shares ended the week at $42.02 apiece, above the director's purchase price range.

Clearwater Analytics Holdings Inc CWAN saw a beneficial owner indirectly pick up some shares throughout the week. The 465,500 shares purchased added up to more than $12.49 million, at a per-share prices ranging from $21.45 to $22.84. The owner's stake in this Idaho-based accounting and data management firm was up to over 7.95 million shares. The stock has traded between $21.10 and $27.68 since its recent IPO.

Two Skillz Inc SKLZ executives and a director altogether added about 598,600 shares of this mobile games and esports platform provider. At $11.32 to $12.50 apiece, the cost for all those shares totaled over $6.97 million. Another officer sold about 70,000 shares last week too. The stock ended Friday trading at $12.50 a share, which is up from a 52-week low of less than $8 seen in October.

The purchase of almost 108,500 Continental Resources, Inc. CLR shares by Harold Hamm (founder, former CEO and 10% owner ) at prices ranging from $46.60 to $48.79 apiece totaled more than $5.17 million. Note that another director added 2,000 shares of this Oklahoma-based energy company to a stake in the previous week. The stock ended Friday trading at $47.25 per share.

See also: 5 Stocks Insiders Are Selling

Some other sizable insider purchases reported last week:

• AT&T Inc. T director buys 100,000 shares for more than $2.5 million.


• Pioneer Natural Resources Co PXD director buys over 10,600 shares for about $2.0 million.


• ServiceNow Inc NOW director buys more than 2,800 shares for over $1.9 million.


• Cricut Inc CRCT beneficial owner buys more than 45,600 shares for over $1.2 million.


• Scotts Miracle-Gro Co SMG director buys 6,000 shares for over $1.0 million.

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

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