Despite Huge Market Rally, Insider Buying Stays Very Strong

We cover insider buying activity each and every week at 24/7 Wall Street. It makes sense for our readers to check the list against what they may have in their own portfolios, and against potential shopping lists for new stocks to add. Insider buying isn’t always bullish, as sometimes investors are adding to positions that have gone down in price, but it usually signals things are on the right track at a company.

Here are this past week’s top insider purchases.

Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) shows up for the third week in a row on the insider buying screens. A 10% owner, B. Berkowitz, continued to add shares to what is already a sizable position. Some 331,600 shares were bought at prices that ranged from $37 to $38.70, for a total purchase of $12.5 million. As the iconic retailer continues to struggle, many on Wall Street are touting the value of the real estate holdings. The stock ended Friday’s trading session at $34.92.

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Third Point Reinsurance Ltd. (NYSE: TPRE) also had a 10% holder come in and buy shares. Hedge Fund guru Dan Loeb bought an additional 1.9 million shares of the company’s stock at a reported $5 a share. The total purchase came to $9.3 million. Since this is way below current market pricing, it may have been part of an equity financing deal between Loeb and the company. Shares closed trading Friday at $15.30.

Altisource Asset Management Corp. (NYSEMKT: AAMC) returns to the 24/7 Wall Street screens again, as 10% owner Luxor Capital Group continues to add shares of the money manager. The company bought 12,850 shares at prices ranging from $546.90 to $550.50. The total purchase came to $7 million. The stock was trading on Friday at $574.99, so it looked like a timely purchase, but the share price fell late in the day to land on $540.00 at the close.

JMP Group Inc. (NYSE: JMP) shareholders should be very excited to see this week’s activity. The CEO, president, a director and an executive committee member bought a whopping 648,504 shares between them at prices ranging from $6.436 to $6.74. The total tab for the buy came to $4.2 million. The stock ended trading on Friday at $7.30. A solid buy for the insiders, as well as a positive for current investors.

Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) is a high-profile blue chip that saw a director of the company make a very big personal purchase: 21,500 shares of the venerable company at $46.60. The total for the buy came to $1 million. Dow shares were trading at Friday’s close at $49.40, so a timely buy indeed.

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Other companies that saw insider buying this week included: Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB), Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE), Unifi Inc. (NYSE: UFI), MVC Capital Inc. (NYSE: MVC) and Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LL).

Solid insider buying on a huge up week for the market is bullish, plain and simple. Shareholders of these companies should be excited to see this action.