Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors. A beneficial owner added to a stake in a biopharma company last week.
An executive at a health insurance giant bucked a selling trend.
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.
Athenex
An Athenex Inc (NASDAQ: ATNX) 10% owner returned to the buy window this past week. The life-sciences-focused investment manager Perceptive Advisors picked up more than 226,900 more shares of this cancer-focused biopharmaceutical company at $13.08 to $14.63 each. That totaled over $3.25 million. That beneficial owner and the company’s chief financial officer also bought shares in the prior week.
Athenex recently released Phase 3 data for its oraxol in metastatic breast cancer. The stock closed most recently at $15.28 a share, so the latest purchases appear to be well-timed. The shares are more than 8% higher in the past week. Analysts anticipate the share price will go to $27.64.
Humana
The chief digital health and analytics officer at Humana Inc (NYSE: HUM) purchased 750 shares of this Louisville-based health insurance giant on Christmas Eve. At an average of $368.40 per share, the stock buy totaled nearly $276,300. Note that several executives and other insiders were selling shares earlier in the month.
Humana has been one of the most overbought stocks in the S&P 500. Shares were last seen trading at $371 a share (just above the mentioned purchase price), after creeping up fractionally in the past week. The 52-week high of $372.92 was seen on Friday, and the consensus analyst recommendation is to buy the shares.
Source: Yahoo