Insiders Have Bought Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), AOL, Inc. (AOL), and More

Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB), the sporting goods store which has been seeing particularly strong business these past few years on high gun sales, has also been seeing insider buying activity. The stock price has risen over 400% in the last five years. While Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB) trades at 25 times trailing earnings, the company’s growth has continued as gun owners worry about future regulation of sales of guns and ammunition. Revenue was up almost 30% in the first quarter of 2013 versus a year earlier, and this was primarily due to comp sales. With net margins rising, earnings grew at an even faster rate.

A member of weight loss drug company VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS)’s Board of Directors bought 15,000 shares of stock on May 29th. VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) and competitor Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) have both brought weight loss drugs to market, and investors have been battling over the relative effectiveness and safety of their offerings. Wall Street analysts expect that it will take some time for Vivus to prosper, with net losses expected for this year and next year. John Burbank’s Passport Capital disclosed ownership of 9.6 million shares as of the beginning of April (research more stocks Passport owned).

An insider at Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG), a $49 billion market cap biotechnology company, was buying in late May at prices of about $124 per share; the stock price has since fallen to below $117 as of this writing. While the stock is up 83% in the last year, in its most recent quarter net income actually fell slightly compared to the same period in the previous year. Analysts do expect earnings growth going forward, and Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG)’s forward P/E multiple is 17. Renaissance Technologies, whose founder Jim Simons is now a billionaire, more than doubled its stake in Celgene between January and March (check out more stocks Renaissance was buying).

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