Notable Insider Buys In The Past Week: Carnival, MGM And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• Some insiders made return trips to the buy window last week.
• Cruise line and resort operators were among those that saw notable insider buying.

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.

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

A director took advantage of a common stock offering to add 1.25 million Carnival Corp CCL shares. At a share price of $8.00, that cost the director $10.00 million. The stock ended last week's trading at $12.42 per share, which is up 7% or so in the past week but still over 75% lower than at the beginning of the year.

Three Simply Good Foods Co SMPL directors bought a combined 45,000 shares of this Denver-based company. At $15.75 to $17.00 per share, that came to more than $741,400 altogether. The maker of Atkins products posted better than expected second-quarter results last week, but the stock lost almost 8% of its value and closed most recently at $15.79 a share. The three analysts surveyed recommend buying shares.

See Also: What To Know About The Stock Market's Best Week Since 1974

Opko Health Inc. OPK CEO Phillip Frost, a frequent buyer, indirectly purchased another 400,000 shares of this biotech last week at an average price of $1.28 apiece. That totaled almost $511,000. The stock ended the week changing hands at $1.43, so the latest purchase seems well timed. Frost also added almost 1.13 million shares in the prior week. His stake is up to more than 188.72 million shares, while the float is around 403 million shares.

LyondellBasell Industries NV LYB CEO Bhavesh Patel shelled out between $48.33 and $50.25 per share for more than 4,600 shares of this chemicals company. That cost him almost $229,700 and was pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Patel also added more than 7,300 shares to his stake back in March. The latest close at $58.93 was above his most recent purchase price range and came after the shares gained about 18% in the past week.

MGM Resorts International MGM saw two directors and an executive pick up more than 15,100 shares altogether for $14.64 to $15.35 each. That totaled over $229,000. Note that the acting chief executive and other insiders bought almost 2.2 million shares in the previous week. Shares were last seen trading at $14.55, below the most recent purchase price range. The stock is down more than 56% year to date.

In addition, note that there was some recent insider buying at independent energy company Apache Corporation APA and retailer Kohl's Corporation KSS as well.