Notable Insider Buys In The Past Week: Beacon Roofing, HD Supply, Scientific Games

Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.

Two building materials suppliers saw notable insider buying this past week.

A chairman returned to add more shares to his stake 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. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly with markets near all-time highs.

The following are a few notable insider purchases reported in the past week.

Beacon Roofing

Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. BECN saw beneficial owner CD&R Investment Associates IX buying some shares again last week. At about $32.08 each, the more than 3.2 million shares reportedly acquired totaled over $102.88 million. That brought this stake to more than 13.75 million shares.

JPMorgan downgraded Beacon Roofing Supply this past week. Its shares were trading at $33.38 each on last look, so the above purchase seems to be well-timed. The stock has changed hands as high as $40 a share in the past year, but the consensus analyst price target is $35.09.

HD Supply

A director at HD Supply Holdings Inc HDS indirectly purchased 600,000 shares of this industrial distributor. At $38.36 to $38.79 a share, that cost this director and activist investor about $23.13 million. It also came after the company announced its intention to split into two independent publicly traded companies.

HD Supply also saw a couple of analyst downgrades last week. The stock was last seen trading at $38.72 a share in a 52-week range of $35.35 to $47.13. The consensus analyst price target was $45.92 on last look, and their consensus recommendation is to hold shares.

Scientific Games

Scientific Games Corp SGMS board chair Ronald Perelman stepped up to the buy window again.

He picked up 100,000 shares of this maker of slot machines and other gaming products at $20.47 to $20.98 apiece last week. The transaction totaled more than $2.08 million, and if followed 200,000 shares Perelman purchased in the previous week.

Last week, the company announced a deal to supply lottery terminals in Italy. The stock closed most recently at $20.81, which is within the purchase price range above. Shares have traded as high as $29.95 in the past 52 weeks, but analysts currently anticipate the price will go to $29.44.

See also: Insider Buying Vs. Insider Selling: What Numbers Really Matter For Traders?

Note that insiders at retailers GameStop Corp. GME and Ulta Beauty Inc ULTA reportedly were buying some shares last week as well.

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

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