Duke Energy, VIVUS And Others Insiders Have Been Buying

Insiders may sell shares for any number of reasons, but conventional wisdom says that insiders really only buy shares of a company for one reason -- they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit from it. Pullbacks and sell-offs provide a perfect opportunity for investors who have faith in a company to snap up shares. Here are some stocks that have seen insider buying recently. AirCastle One director has bought nearly 165,000 shares so far in September. Combined, that was worth more than $2.7 million. Aircastle AYR has been selling shares to Japanese trading firm Marubeni to raise capital and improve its balance sheet as it continues to recover from the Great Recession. The market capitalization is more than $1 billion and the long-term earnings per share (EPS) growth forecast is more than 24 percent. Shares of this lessor of commercial jet aircraft rose more than four percent in the past week. The stock has outperformed the broader markets over the past six months. AllianceBernstein One AllianceBernstein AB director scooped up 50,000 shares at the end of August. The total price of that purchase was more than $980,000. The company announced in August that it would acquire equity investment manager W.P. Stewart. This New York-based global investment manager has a market cap of more than $2 billion, and a dividend yield near 8.5 percent. The long-term EPS growth forecast is about 13 percent. The share price has retreated more than 12 percent in the past month, and the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 over the past six months. Apache Two directors bought a combined 11,000 shares of Apache APA, which was worth more than $946,000. This was after Apache announced the sale of a minority stake in a joint venture to pursue upstream oil and gas projects in Egypt in order to pay down debt and maintain its current credit rating. The Houston-based company has a market cap of more than $33 billion and a dividend yield of about 1.0 percent. The share price is almost 14 percent higher than three weeks ago. The stock has outperformed competitor Anadarko Petroleum APC and the S&P 500 over the past six months. See also: Shale Boom Could Be A Boon For These ETFs AvalonBay Communities At the end of August, two directors purchased a total of 4,000 shares of this real estate investment trust, which was worth almost $497,000. Also, Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group recently increased its stake in this Arlington, Virginia-based owner and operator of apartment communities. The market cap of AvalonBay Communities AVB is more than $16 billion and the dividend yield is near 3.5 percent. The share price fell about eight percent in August and hit a 52-week low last week. Over the past six months, the stock has underperformed the broader markets. Duke Energy One director recently purchased 5,900 Duke Energy DUK shares for a total price of more than $388,000. This was at about the same time the company announced it would shutter five coal-fired plants by 2018 and it settled a dispute over a power plant in Indiana. This Charlotte, North Carolina-based electric utility has a market cap of more than $46 billion and a dividend yield near 4.8 percent. Shares have pulled back almost eight percent in the past month to a year-to-date low. Over the past six months, the stock has outperformed competitor American Electric Power AEP. VIVUS One director grabbed 10,000 VIVUS VVUS shares this past week, at a price of more than $119,000. This biopharmaceutical company recently announced the resignation of its chief executive officer after only a month and named a former Johnson & Johnson JNJ executive as his replacement. The market cap of this maker of anti-obesity drug Qsymia is about $1 billion. Note that its return on equity and operating margin are both in the red. Shares dropped more than 12 percent last week. Because of the pullback, the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 over the past six months. See also: These Three Speculative Small Caps Are Loved By Insiders And Institutions At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.