Benzinga's Insider Buys Of The Week: JPMorgan, Philip Morris And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• Banking and tobacco giants appeared on our insider buy screens this week.
• Insiders at a flooring products maker and a REIT returned to the buy window this week.

Conventional wisdom says that insiders and 10-percent owners really only buy shares of a company for one reason — they believe the stock price will rise and want to profit. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly during periods of uncertainty.

Here's a look at some notable insider purchases reported in the past week.

Perrigo

Perrigo Company plc PRGO saw one of its directors buy 400,000 shares of this Dublin-based health care products maker. The share prices for these purchases ranged from $75.19 to $75.89, and the total for the transaction was around $30.18 million. The acquisitions increased the director's stake to more than 3.66 million shares.

Wells Fargo lowered its price target on Perrigo last week, and the company recently posted better-than-expected quarterly results. The shares rose more than 5 percent this past week and ended at $76.21, so the director's buys seem well-timed. The analysts' mean price target for the shares is $93.12.

Mohawk Industries

At Mohawk Industries, Inc. MHK, a director added more than 73,700 shares of this flooring products company to their stake last week. The share prices for these purchases ranged from $208.89 to $209.05, and the total for the transactions was almost $15.44 million. Note that this same director also bought more than 60,000 shares earlier this month.

Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb's firm Third Point reportedly cut its stake in Mohawk in the quarter ending in March. Overall, Mohawk shares have retreated since January, but they ended most recently at $216.15, so these insider buys seem well-timed. The analysts' mean price target is $278.32 a share.

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DDR

A director of DDR Corp DDR has been buying shares of the shopping center-focused real estate investment trust since February, including this past week's more than 816,000 shares. At prices that ranged from $7.21 to $7.51 apiece, that cost them approximately $6 million. Note that the latest purchases brought their stake to around 58.07 million shares out of about 370 million shares outstanding.

DDR recently announced a one-for-two reverse stock split effective May 21. Its shares slipped fractionally in the past week and traded most recently at $7.28, still within the director's purchase price range. The S&P 500 was down more than 2 percent last week.

JPMorgan

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM saw a director step up to the buy window early last week. The 13,000 shares of this financial services colossus that the director acquired at per-share prices between $114.59 and $114.61 cost nearly $1.48 million. Note that this purchase brought the director's stake to less than 18,300 shares.

Shareholders overwhelmingly reelected the entire JPMorgan board this past week. The shares ended the past week's trading fractionally lower. Note that Friday's close at $111.13 a share was less than the director's purchase price. The mean price target is $122; the stock has traded as high as $119.33 a share in the past 52 weeks.

Philip Morris

A Philip Morris International Inc. PM director scooped up 15,000 shares of this global cigarettes maker. At $80.94 to $81 per share, the transaction totaled more than $1.21 million. Note that this director and another purchased together more than 73,700 shares in the previous week as well.

According to Barron's, these were the largest insider buys at Philip Morris in years. The shares have been trading at multiyear lows and closed this past week at $80.75 apiece. The stock is down more than 22 percent year to date, and the mean price target is $106.63.

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

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