5 Stocks That Insiders Have Been Buying Lately

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  • Insiders have returned to stock up on Aircastle and Opko Health shares.
  • Recent insider buying also includes tech stocks Analog Devices and Citrix Systems.
  • Strong insider buying is often considered a positive sign for investors.
The markets may be back in the black for the year, but as the year begins to wind down, investors will be looking to position themselves to squeeze out any final gains and prepare for 2016. It is interesting to see some regular inside buyers headed back for more. 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. It should be no surprise that executives, directors and others are likely to continue taking advantage of any weakness they see.

Aircastle

Japanese trading company Marubeni continues scooping up batches of jet-rental company
Aircastle LimitedAYR
, as it has done for more than a year. That included more than 90,000 of them in the final week of November at between $20.48 and $20.49 apiece, or more than $1.8 million. Aircastle's market cap is about $1.7 billion, and its shareholders enjoy a dividend yield of about 4.6 percent. The share price has yet to fully recover from a post-earnings sell-off in early November. The stock was trading at $20.84 on Tuesday's close, just above Marubeni's purchase price.
See also:EXCLUSIVE: Platform Specialty Products Exec Explains Insider Buy

Analog Devices

One director picked up 10,000
Analog Devices, Inc.ADI
shares last week at $60.60 per share. The total for that transaction came to more than $605,000. At least one analyst recently saw
Analog Devices as undervalued
despite acquisitions. This integrated circuits maker has a market cap near $19.2 billion and a dividend yield of about 2.6 percent. Shares have gained less than 2 percent in the past month, but that outperformed the Nasdaq. The stock closed Tuesday's trading at $61.57, so it appears to have been a well-timed buy.

Citrix Systems

Recently, Elliott Management hedge funds bought more than $4.4 million worth of
Citrix Systems, Inc.CTXS
, or more than 58,000 shares, between $75.70 and $76.73 apiece. Citrix announced a
spin-off and layoffs
earlier in the month, sending shares lower. This $11.9 million market cap software company has a long-term EPS growth forecast of more than 15 percent. Its share price is up about 4 percent since the sell-off on news of the spin-off. The stock ended Tuesday's trading at $77.83 per share, so it appears to be another well-timed buy.

Opko Health

The chairman continues to buy batches of shares periodically, as he has done for more than a year. At the end of the month he added another 23,800
Opko Health Inc.OPK
shares (in noticeably smaller batches than previously) at prices between $10.94 and $11.06. That cost him around $262,000. This Miami-based health care company has a market cap near $6.0 billion. Note that short interest is nearly 20 percent of the total float. Shares closed most recently at $11.09, after rising more than 15 percent in the past month. Note that shares traded above $19 last summer.
See also:David Tepper: SunEdison Is Holding Back TerraForm's Value

Wesco Aircraft

One director recently acquired two blocks of
Wesco Aircraft Holdings IncWAIR
shares at $12.36 to $12.99 apiece. The total for those more than 233,000 shares was almost $3 million, and the buys followed the announcement of
an extended contract
with Triumph Group. Wesco's market cap is about $1.3 billion, and it provides supply chain management services to the aerospace industry. The share price dropped to a multiyear low in November, but since then it is up about 10 percent. The stock closed at $13.12 Tuesday, so here too it seems like well-timed buys.
At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.
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Posted In: Long IdeasNewsInsider TradesTop StoriesTrading IdeasAircastleanalog devicesCitrix SystemsOpko HealthWesco Aircraft
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