Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

On Wednesday, Green Plains' CEO, Todd A. Becker, made a $128,000 purchase of GPRE, buying 10,000 shares at a cost of $12.80 a piece. Becker was up about 11.7% on the purchase at the high point of today's trading session, with GPRE trading as high as $14.30 in trading on Friday. Green Plains is trading up about 8% on the day Friday. This buy marks the first one filed by Becker in the past twelve months.

And at Sally Beauty Holdings, there was insider buying on Monday, by CEO Christian A. Brickman who purchased 10,000 shares at a cost of $11.67 each, for a trade totaling $116,659. Before this latest buy, Brickman made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $94,676 shares at a cost of $12.38 each. Sally Beauty Holdings is trading up about 2.2% on the day Friday. Brickman was up about 10.3% on the purchase at the high point of today's trading session, with SBH trading as high as $12.87 in trading on Friday.