Last Week's Notable Insider Buys: IBM, Intel, Raytheon And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors when markets face uncertainty.


• Insiders were buying shares of a couple of semiconductor makers and an old-school tech giant last week.


• Some chief executives were among the insiders making trips to the buy window.


 

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 when markets are near all-time highs.

Though buy windows have closed for many insiders during earnings-reporting season, plenty of others continued to add shares despite market volatility and economic uncertainty. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week.

The Live Oak Bancshares Inc. LOB CEO, James Mahan, via trust purchased over 154,300 shares of this North Carolina-based bank at prices ranging from $33.02 to $35.00 apiece. That cost him more than $5.27 million. Note that Mahan also bought 233,000 shares back in August.

An executive and two other insiders at newly public Foghorn Therapeutics Inc FHTX bought more than 305,000 shares at the IPO price of $16.00. That totaled almost $4.90 million. Note that one of those insiders, listed as a former 10% owner, was the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Raytheon Technologies Corp. RTX saw Chief Executive Officer Gregory Hayes pick up 55,000 shares of this aerospace and defense company. Four other insiders cumulatively bought more than 30,000 shares as well. At $52.28 to $55.20 per share, those transactions totaled over $4.59 million altogether.

A beneficial owner at Safety Insurance Group Inc. SAFT returned to add to a stake. The more than 48,500 shares of this Boston-based company indirectly scooped up, at prices ranging from $68.25 to $69.94, totaled almost $3.35 million. That owner bought 100 shares in the previous week as well.

IBM IBM had four directors acquire over 16,700 shares altogether of this old-school tech giant last week. At $107.49 to $110.75 per share, that added up to more than $1.82 million. Note that a different insider sold less than 7,000 shares back in August for more than $126 apiece.

A director at Crown Castle International Corp. CCI picked up more than 8,000 shares of this communications infrastructure company, some of them via family trust. At prices ranging from $160.85 to $161.75 per share, the total for those purchases came to more than $1.29 million.

A director paid between $132.47 and $132.85 each for 3,000 Kimberly Clark Corp. KMB shares late last week. That cost him around $398,000 and brought his stake in this Dallas-based consumer products company to more than 48,400 shares.

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Intel Corp. INTC CEO Bob Swan stepped up to the buy window midweek. At $44.96 apiece, the more than 8,000 shares he acquired added up to more than $360,600. Note that the purchase price is not much above the 52-week low of $43.61 seen on Friday.

A Genuine Parts Co. GPC director added 2,200 more shares of this Atlanta-based vehicle parts maker last week. At around $91.72 per share, that cost him more than $201,700. Note that this director also bought 2,000 shares of Oxford Industries in September.

And NXP Semiconductors NV NXPI saw a director add shares to her stake. At $134.30 a share, the 1,500 shares cost her more than $201,400 and more than doubled the stake. Note that another director sold almost twice as many shares on the same day for a slightly higher price.

Note that there also was some smaller amount of insider buying at Bank of Hawaii Corp. BOH, Crown Holdings Inc. CCK, Perspecta Inc. PRSP and Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. TCBI posted last week.

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

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