Five Small Cap Stocks Insiders Are Crazy About, Including Howard Hughes Corp (HHC) & Halcon Resources Corp (HK)

American Campus Communities, Inc. (NYSE:ACC), a real estate investment trust which invests in student housing properties, also meets our criteria of multiple insiders buying the stock within the last month. Because real estate investment trusts must distribute a large share of taxable income to shareholders in order to preserve their favorable tax treatment, they often pay high yields; American Campus Communities, Inc. (NYSE:ACC) is no exception with an annual yield of 4.3%. We’d note that the stock has dropped nearly 30% year to date. Highbridge Capital Management, managed by billionaire Glenn Dubin, was buying the stock last quarter (check out more stocks Dubin was buying).

Another real estate investment trust which insiders are excited about is Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA), which as might be implied from the name invests in health care related real estate such as medical office buildings. With quarterly dividend payments of 14.4 cents per share, the yield is 5.6% at current prices. In statistical terms, Healthcare Trust Of America Inc (NYSE:HTA) has a fairly low beta- of 0.4- and it does make some sense that healthcare related real estate would be less sensitive to changes in the overall economy than residential or general commercial.

Finishing off our list of small caps with multiple insiders buying recently is $2.7 billion market cap aerospace equipment manufacturer Woodward Inc (NYSE:WWD). In its most recent quarter, Woodward’s sales grew by 5% compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year but this was offset by higher costs; as a result, pretax income was down slightly. Woodward Inc (NYSE:WWD) carries trailing and forward earnings multiples of 20 and 16, respectively, and so markets seem to have priced in expectations that business will grow moderately over the next few years.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.