General Electric, American Eagle Outfitters 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 Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp. has been scooping up batches of Aircastle AYR shares since last August. That included 88,500 of them last week, for more than $1.1 million. The jet-rental company recently has been a rumored takeover target. The market capitalization is about $1.5 billion and the long-term earnings per share (EPS) growth forecast is more than 29 percent. The dividend yield is about 4.3 percent. Shares have traded mostly between $18 and $19 since the end of October. Over the past six months, the stock has outperformed competitors Aercap Holdings and Air Lease. American Eagle Outfitters The executive chairman of the board recently bought 500,000 shares of American Eagle Outfitters AEO, and a director purchased 5,000 shares as well. Altogether that was worth almost $6.5 million. Shares of this retailer dropped following the surprise departure of the CEO. The market capitalization is now more than $2 billion and the long-term earnings per share (EPS) growth forecast is more than seven percent. The dividend yield is about 3.7 percent. Shares have fallen more than eight percent since the beginning of the month. The stock has underperformed competitors Abercrombie & Fitch and Aeropostale over the past six months. See also: American Eagle Outfitters Names Jay Schottenstein Interim CEO BancorpSouth While the COO and other executives were selling shares last week, one director bought almost $381,000 worth of BancorpSouth BXS shares. That was more than 15,000 shares. This Tupelo, Mississippi-based company announced a merger with Ouachita Bancshares in early January. BancorpSouth has a market cap of more than $2 billion, and its operating margin is greater than the industry average. The share price has fallen more than five percent year to date. Over the past six months, though, the stock has outperformed the likes of Regions Financial and the broader markets. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt scooped up 40,000 General Electric GE shares last week for about $1 million. Two directors also bought shares in January. GE has faced a double whammy recently: disappointing quarter results and a sell-off in the broader markets. The market cap of this Fairfield, Connecticut-based conglomerate is more than $253 billion. Its dividend yield is only about 3.5 percent, and the return on equity is more than 16 percent. Shares have retreated more than eight percent year to date. Over the past six months, the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Opko Health The chairman continues to buy batches of shares periodically, as he has done for more than a year. He picked up about 615,000 Opko Health OPK shares last week for a total price of more than $5.1 million. The chief technology officer also bought 20,000 shares. This Miami-based health care company has a market cap of more than $3 billion, and short interest is more than 20 percent of its float. The share price is down more than 10 percent in the past two weeks. Over the past six months, the stock has outperformed the broader markets but underperformed competitor Allergan. Regis The CEO and two directors cumulatively bought more than 1.5 million shares recently. That was worth more than $18.5 million. Regis RGS, a franchiser of hair-styling and hair care salons, reported a wider net loss and declining same-store sales in its recent quarterly report. Its market cap is near $700 million, and the company offers a dividend yield around 1.9%. The long-term EPS growth forecast is about nine percent. Shares fell to a multiyear low following the disappointing report. The stock has underperformed larger competitor Ulta Salons and the S&P 500 over the past six months. See also: What You Need To Look At To Find Exceptional Returns 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 us on Twitter.