Last Week's Notable Insider Buys: PennyMac Financial, Republic Services And More

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, especially when markets are near all-time highs.
• Yet again, some insiders were taking advantage of recent public share offerings.
• Biotechs and a real estate investment trust saw insider purchases, and an insider at a mortgage company returned once again.

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 there is uncertainty in the markets or the markets are near all-time highs.

As we are between earnings-reporting seasons, plenty of insiders are free to add to their stakes. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week.

DigitalOcean Holdings Inc DOCN saw an insider, listed as an associate of a 10% owner, indirectly acquire just shy of $100 million worth of shares. That was more than 2.12 million shares of this cloud computing company at an initial public offering price of $47 apiece. The stock ended the week at $43.80 per share.

Florida-based marketing company Digital Media Solutions Inc DMS also saw a recent big insider purchase. One of its directors picked up more than 5.62 million shares at a price of $9.49 apiece. That cost that director more than $53.37 million, and it lifted his stake to over 7.62 million shares, which makes him a beneficial owner.

Two Edgewise Therapeutics Inc EWTX directors and two other insiders took advantage of the IPO to purchase over 1.62 million shares altogether of this Boulder, Colorado-based biopharma company. At $16 per share, that totaled around $20.30 million. The shares ended last week's trading at $30.01.

Also taking advantage of a public offering, one director acquired more than 739,800 Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc VRCA shares via trust recently. At the listed offering price of $14.75 per share, the total for that came to over $10.91 million. The dermatology therapeutics company's stock ended last week trading at $15.33 a share.

A director at PennyMac Financial Services Inc PFSI returned to the buy window in the past week. That director added over 223,100 more shares to its stake, bringing the total to almost 1.51 million shares. At prices that ranged from $64.36 to $65.00 per share, the latest transactions totaled around $14.96 million.

The 3 million CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc CASI shares that Chief Executive Officer Wei-Wu He indirectly purchased had a public offering price of $2.05 per share. This transaction cost CEO He some $6.15 million, and it came before the biopharma company posted its 2020 results last week. Shares closed Friday's trading at $2.25.

Even though Mack Cali Realty Corp CLI recently suspended its dividend and has announced asset sales, a director added over 345,900 more shares to his stake last week. The director's latest purchase price for this real estate investment trust ranged from $15.43 to $15.63 a share, and the total came to nearly $5.37 million.

A beneficial owner of GMS Inc GMS bought 115,000 shares early last week for $39.63 to $41.25 apiece. These purchases added up to more than $4.62 million and raised the stake to almost 4.55 million shares. The stock of this building products maker ended the week trading at $41.88 a share, after hitting a year-to-date high of $44.77 earlier last month.

Republic Services, Inc. RSG, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation favorite, saw a 10% owner pick up 10,000 or so shares mid-week. At per-share prices ranging from $99.10 to $99.95, this cost that owner nearly $1.69 million, and it lifted the stake in the waste management giant to more than 108,800 shares.

See also: Insider Sells Darden Restaurants Stock

Note that some smaller amount of insider buying at Arcus Biosciences Inc RCUS, First Merchants Corporation FRME, Mission Produce Inc AVO, Omega Healthcare Investors Inc OHI and Vizio Holding Corp VZIO was reported in the past week as well.

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

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Photo by Tim Trad on Unsplash.