Insider Buys Of The Week: Conagra, JPMorgan, Kinder Morgan

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• An executive board chair resumed his share buying this past week.
• A chief executive also stepped up to the buy window last 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 they want to profit from it. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly with markets near all-time highs.

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

Kinder Morgan

The Kinder Morgan Inc KMI executive chair of the board, Richard Kinder, has picked up more than 502,600 additional shares of this Houston-based energy infrastructure giant. At $19.75 per share, last week's transactions totaled more than $9.92 million. Note that these purchases were pursuant to a 10b5-1 trading plan, and his buying stretches back to the beginning of the year.

Kinder Morgan's first-quarter results came in largely as expected, and analysts still see some upside going forward. The stock has gained around 20 percent year to date and closed most recently at $19.39, below Kinder's latest purchase price. Shares have traded between $14.62 and $20.44 in the past 52 weeks, but analysts anticipate the price will go to $21.58.

See Also: BlackRock's Larry Fink Tells CNBC He Sees Lack Of 'Good Assets'

JPMorgan

A JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM director bucked the trend by acquiring 19,700 shares of this financial giant. At $111.02 to $114.26 per share, those transactions totaled more than $2.9 million. They came just after the chief financial officer and other executives sold more than 274,500 shares altogether early in the week.

Along with peer Wells Fargo, JPMorgan posted its latest quarterly results last Monday. Shares rose handily after the report to nearly $115, but closed most recently at $113.46. Shares have traded as high as $119.24 in the past 52 weeks, and the mean price target was last seen at $117.69.

Conagra Brands

This past week, two Conagra Brands Inc CAG directors picked up a total of 11,600 shares of this packaged foods producer. At prices that ranged from $29.98 to $30.06 per share, that cost those directors almost $348,000. Note that another director sold nearly $604,000 worth of shares last week too.

Conagra's CEO recently discussed the company's strategies with CNBC's Jim Cramer. The stock ended the past week at $30.52 per share, above the purchase price range noted above. While the consensus target was last seen at $33.63, the stock has traded as high as $39.43 in the past 52 weeks.