Notable Insider Buys In The Past Week: FedEx, Kinder Morgan, Trinity Industries

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• An insider at a transportation company bought shares after earnings.
• A board chair at an energy infrastructure giant resumed his buying habit.

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 during periods of uncertainty.

Trinity Industries

A Trinity Industries Inc TRN director stepped up to the buy window this past week. That director indirectly picked up 1.65 million shares of this transportation products and services company at $19.67 to $20.49 apiece. Those transactions totaled more than $32.91 million and brought the director's stake to more than 24.1 million shares.

The company posted better-than-expected third-quarter results in the prior week. The stock closed Friday at $20.75 a share, just above the top of the director's purchase price range, and up over 6% in the past week. The shares hit a 52-week high of $26.63 early in the year, but analysts now anticipate the share price will go only to $22.80.

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Kinder Morgan

The Kinder Morgan Inc KMI executive chair of the board, Richard Kinder, recently resumed his buying. He picked up 600,000 more shares of this Houston-based energy infrastructure giant last week at $19.98 to $20.29 each. That totaled more than $12.05 million. Kinder was a frequent buyer of shares between January and May of this year.

Goldman Sachs recently downgraded the stock, and SunTrust lowered its price target. Shares were trading at $20.50 apiece on last look, above the range of Kinder's latest purchases. The stock has traded as high as $21.50 in the past year, and the analysts' consensus price target is $22.15.

FedEx

The director at FedEx Corporation FDX scooped up 10,000 shares of this transportation and services giant late last week. At $151.75 to $156.50 apiece, that cost him around $1.54 million and boosted his stake to almost 68,000 shares. Note that another director bought 1,750 shares in late September.

Wells Fargo is bullish on FedEx and rival UPS ahead of the holiday season. FedEx stock was last seen trading at $156.52 a share, after pulling back more than 2% last week. The 52-week trading range is $137.78 to $234.49, and the analysts' consensus recommendation is to buy shares.

Note that the insider buying at Assured Guaranty Ltd. AGO continued last week, and some buying also was seen at American Airlines Group Inc AAL and natural gas company Encana Corp ECA.