Insider Buys Of The Week: FedEx, TechnipFMC, Opko Health

• Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors.
• A couple of notable CEOs showed up at the buy windows this past week.
• One of those CEOs just reached a settlement with the SEC.

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.

Here's a look at a few notable insider purchases reported in the past week.

FedEx

FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) saw a director start off the new year by adding to his stake. At per-share prices that ranged from $162.79 to $163.00, the more than 7,000 shares reportedly acquired cost him around $1.14 million. That brought the director's stake to nearly 26,000 shares.

A recent quarterly report has some analysts turning bearish on the prospects for this transportation and business services giant. The stock ended last week at $164.43 per share, so the director's purchase seems fortunately timed. The shares have traded as high as $274.66 in the past year, but the consensus price target was at $231.37 on last look.

See Also: Analyst: New CFO May Be Perfect Fit For Netflix

TechnipFMC

The TechnipFMC PLC (NYSE: FTI) CEO Douglas Pferdehirt stepped up to the buy window just before the year ended, adding 50,000 shares of this U.K.-based services provider to the energy industry. The share prices for these purchases ranged from $19.06 to $19.36, and the transactions totaled a little more than $960,000. Those shares are held in a family trust.

The company added $300 million to its share buyback plan back in December. The shares closed most recently at $20.88, after ending the week more than 5 percent higher. That was more than 8 percent higher than Pferdehirt's average purchase price. The stock traded at a high of $35 almost a year ago, but the consensus price target was at $31.25 on last look.

Opko Health

At Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK), Chair and CEO Phillip Frost resumed his habit of frequently buying batches of shares. This past week, that was 225,000 shares of this medical test and medication company. At share prices between $2.88 and $3.15, that totaled around $693,000, and it brought his stake to more than 24.74 million shares.

Frost and Opko settled with the SEC over fraud charges after Christmas. Shares were trading at $3.54 a share on last look, so a nice quick pop for this CEO. They changed hands as high as $6.40 apiece in the past year. However, the six analysts polled have a consensus price target of $10.00.