Insider Buys Of The Week: AT&T, GE, Salesforce

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• Some insiders took advantage of post-earnings slumps this week.
• Also, an insider bucked the selling trend in a hot software stock.

Conventional wisdom says 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.

AT&T

Five AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) directors stepped up to the buy window this past week. The total of more than 90,500 shares of this telecom giant acquired, at per-share prices ranging from $30.21 to $30.73, cost them altogether more than $4.56 million. Note that none of these directors owns more than 100,000 shares.

These purchases came just after AT&T shared its latest quarterly results and about the time the stock hit a new 52-week low. Shares ended the week trading at $31.08 apiece, so these directors’ purchases seem to be well-timed. The stock has changed hands between $30.13 and $39.80 in the past year, and the analyst’s mean price target is $35.99.

See Also: Report: CBS CEO Les Moonves Accused Of Sexual Misconduct

GE

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) saw one of its directors add to his stake last week. At an average price of $13.04 apiece, the 191,000 shares reportedly acquired cost that director about $2.94 million. Note this director is also the CEO of Danaher, and his stake in GE was listed as more than 360,000 shares.

GE saw a post-earnings decline even though it topped Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines. The stock ended last week at $13.06, still near the director’s purchase price. It has traded as high as $25.89 in the past year, but the Wall Street consensus price target was last seen at $17.11.

Salesforce

While the CEO, president and other Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM) executives and insiders were selling throughout July, one director stepped up to the buy window this past week. That director picked up 6,000 shares at between $146.01 and $146.49 apiece. That totaled almost $877,300 and was pursuant to a 10b5-1 plan.

While other big tech stocks suffered last week, Salesforce shares hit a new 52-week high. However, the stock ended the past week at $143.91, down about 3 percent and below the director’s purchase price range. The S&P 500 was down only fractionally in that time. The consensus price target for Salesforce is $150.40 a share.