Corporate executives and board members made a number of high-profile purchases of their own stock in early May, including a purchase of Walt Disney stock by Wall Street’s biggest names. Director James Gorman purchased 20,000 shares of the entertainment company for $2.1 million on May 8, according to securities filings and VerityData. Gorman was the former CEO of Morgan Stanley. Gorman’s buying this year is something of an anomaly among Disney executives, as two executive vice presidents have made small selloffs in 2024. The idea is that these moves show how confident the management team is in the direction of the business. Here are the top stocks purchased by corporate insiders in early May, according to VerityData and securities filings. Gorman’s acquisition is not the largest in corporate America so far this month. Sensata Technologies director Ali John Mirshekari bought $10.6 million worth of shares over two days in the first week of May. However, the positive signal from the purchase may have been partially offset by a $4.6 million gain on May 8 when CEO Martha Sullivan exercised stock options and then sold the shares. Shares of Sensata Technologies are up about 13% so far this year, so Mirshekari’s acquisition may be a bet that the gains will continue. However, some of the other big acquisitions on the list come from companies whose stock prices are struggling. Shares of real estate investment trust Macerich were little changed this year but fell sharply in late April after reporting a first-quarter loss. Since then, new CEO Jackson Hsieh purchased 140,000 shares for about $2 million. Several other Macerich insiders bought shares in May. Macerich’s MAC 1M mountain stock briefly fell in late April. Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment and Vestis have both seen their share prices fall sharply this year, but individual directors spent more than $1 million buying their shares in May. For Caesars, director Michael Pegram’s roughly $1.5 million acquisition was labeled a “high-smart acquisition” by VerityData. Pegram also bought shares in March. —CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed reporting.
Executives at these companies, including Disney, are buying stocks as the market recovers
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