As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy -- they expect to make money. So let's look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

On Wednesday, Hess Corp (HES)'s Director, Metzsch Ernst H. Von, made a $916,760 buy of HES, purchasing 20,000 shares at a cost of $45.84 each. Bargain hunters can pick up HES at a price even lower than Von did, with shares changing hands as low as $44.97 in trading on Friday -- that's 1.9% under Von's purchase price. Hess Corp is trading down about 0.3% on the day Friday. Before this latest buy, Von made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $24,861 shares at a cost of $64.24 a piece.

And at Alleghany Corp. (Y), there was insider buying on Wednesday, by Executive Vice President Joseph Patrick Brandon who purchased 1,350 shares for a cost of $331.83 each, for a trade totaling $447,971. Before this latest buy, Brandon purchased Y on 3 other occasions during the past twelve months, for a total investment of $481,523 at an average of $329.13 per share. Alleghany Corp. is trading trading flat on the day Friday. Investors can snag Y at a price even lower than Brandon did, with shares changing hands as low as $325.27 in trading on Friday which is 2.0% under Brandon's purchase price.