One CEO is notably a long-time, frequent buyer of his company's shares. His most recent purchase was another 10,000 shares. Insider buying can be seen as a good sign for investors.
For well more than a year, the CEO of Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) has frequently bought shares of the biotech company. 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 during periods of uncertainty.
Phillip Frost, board chair as well as chief executive at this Miami-based company, has bought another 10,000 shares. The share price for that purchase was $9.36, for a total of more than $93,500. So far this month, he has acquired almost $890,000 worth of Opko shares, bringing his stake to more than 160.26 million shares. Opko has around 550.38 million shares outstanding.
Opko has a market capitalization of more than $5 billion but does not offer a dividend. It is one of the most shorted Nasdaq stocks, with 22.2 percent of the float sold short. Shares have retreated more than 12 percent in the past month, closing recently at $9.41, still near the CEO's latest purchase price. The stock is down less than 6 percent year-to-date.