Notable Insider Buys In The Past Week: Enterprise Products Partners, PBF Energy, Sage Therapeutics

Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.

Two energy companies saw insiders return to add to their stakes last week.

Executives at a biotech company took advantage of a pullback to buy shares.

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.

PBF Energy

A 10% owner of PBF Energy Inc. PBF scooped up more than 293,400 shares of this New Jersey-based refiner last week.

At prices ranging from $29.72 to $29.94, that totaled less than $8.75 million, and it followed the purchase of more than 1.11 million shares in the previous week.

PBF posted better-than-expected third-quarter results. The stock was last seen trading at $29.86 per share — still within the above purchase price range — after retreating more than 12% since the earnings report.

The 52-week trading range is $21.10 to $37.03, and the consensus analyst recommendation is to buy the shares.

Enterprise Products Partners

An Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD director stepped up to the buy window again this past week. That director picked up an additional 201,000 shares via trust of this midstream energy services provider at $26.11 to $26.73 each. That totaled about $5.31 million. The same director bought more than 1.16 million shares in the prior week.

Some traders still favor Enterprise Products Partners for its imperviousness to the economy and for its dividend. The stock closed most recently at $27.52 per share, above all the director's purchase prices this so far month. The shares are more than 5% higher since the beginning of December. Analysts currently anticipate the share price will go to $34.80.

Sage Therapeutics

SAGE Therapeutics Inc SAGE saw its CEO Jeffrey Jonas purchase 7,500 shares and its chief scientific officer buy 25,000 shares. At prices ranging from $63.77 to $64.49 per share, that cost them more than $2.08 million altogether. Jonas' purchase lifted his stake to over 54,500 shares.

The release of disappointing trial results took a big bite out of the stock last week. Its shares were trading at $72.87 each on last look, so the purchases appear to be well-timed. The stock has traded as high as $193.56 in the past year, and the consensus analyst price target is $109.11.

See also: Restoration Hardware CEO, 6 Other Execs Sell Shares

Note that there also was some insider buying at the former BB&T, now known as Truist Financial Corp TFC, and at Dow Inc DOW in the past week.

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 Benzinga on Twitter.