Notable Insider Buys In The Past Week: AutoZone, Exxon, Dell And More

Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.

Many insiders took advantage of fallen share prices last week.

Carl Icahn returned to the buy window 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 during periods of uncertainty.

Insiders continued to take advantage of lower share prices last week. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week.

Dell Technologies Inc DELL CEO Michael Dell picked up about 828,200 shares of this tech company for $25.57 to $36.86 each. That totaled over $26.25 million and brought his stake to about 1.38 million shares.

A beneficial owner of Cheniere Energy Partners LP CQP bought around 946,100 shares of this Houston-based company at between $24.54 and $27 each. That totaled more than $24.46 million.

Simon Property Group Inc SPG CEO David Simon and seven other insiders altogether purchased over 372,300 shares of the real estate investment trust at prices ranging from $46.17 to $66.15 apiece. That totaled more than $20.84 million.

Carl Icahn, a 10% owner at Delek US Holdings Inc DK, indirectly shelled out between $10.41 and $11.39 per share for nearly 1.11 million shares. That cost him more than $11.82 million.

Palo Alto-based Cloudera Inc CLDR saw a director buy shares when executives were selling. At prices ranging from $6.67 to $7.25, the 719,000 shares that director purchased added up to nearly $5 million.

A vice president and a director at Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc SBGI together picked up 305,000 shares of this TV broadcaster. At $11.01 to $13.54 per share, that came to more than $4.11 million.

Co-CEOs A.J. Teague and Randall Fowler were joined in their buying by three Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD directors. Altogether, they paid between $10.34 and $14.66 each for around 273,000 shares. That totaled more than $3.42 million.

CEO Barry Sterlicht indirectly added 218,000 Starwood Property Trust, Inc. STWD shares to his stake. At a share price of $9.21, that cost him less than $2.01 million. Another director bought 25,000 shares in the previous week.

An AutoZone, Inc. AZO acquired some shares of this specialty retailer early last week. At prices ranging from $870 to $900, the 2,000 shares added up to more than $1.77 million.

And a pair of Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM executives picked up 30,000 shares each. At $33.80 to $36.41 per share, that totaled about $2.1 million altogether. A director bought less than 9,000 shares earlier in the month.

In addition, note that there was some recent insider buying at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALXN, Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CNK, Stitch Fix Inc SFIX and Wells Fargo & Co WFC.

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.