Pity the poor retailers. They are getting hammered from all sides.

They built too many stores, and lots of them are in malls, which are going out of style. With interest rates so low, consumers prefer big-ticket stuff like homes, cars and appliances.

Savings on cheap gasoline went to restaurants. The strong dollar has kept tourists at bay. Warm weather last winter killed off seasonal sales.

Then there’s Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +5.69% , which, of course, is taking over the world, and is now apparently working on a way to deliver humans to Mars.

“I am pretty torn on the [retail] space,” says Colin McWey, a portfolio manager with Heartland Funds. “There are way too many brands. There is way too much competition chasing not enough demand.”

All of this helps explain why the shares of many retailers have been left for dead — while Amazon just hit new highs, of course.

But now, though, there are several signs of hope for the average brick-and-mortar retailer:

My favorite sign, which I don’t see a lot of analysts talking about: In the past several weeks, insiders at nearly 20 retailers bought significant amounts of stock. They bought at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF, -0.47% , Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. ULTA, -0.85% , Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. SPB, +1.96% , Genesco Inc. GCO, +1.15% , J.C. Penney Co. US:JCP , Dollar Tree Inc. DLTR, +0.96% and Dollar General Corp. DG, +2.66% , and a bunch of smaller niche retailers including Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. ETH, +0.97% and At Home Group Inc. HOME, +3.41% . Usually when you see broad buying across a group, it’s a good sign that some kind of turn is about to happen.

Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. ULTA, Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. SPB, Genesco Inc. GCO, J.C. Penney Co. US:JCP Dollar Tree Inc. DLTR, and Dollar General Corp. DG, and a bunch of smaller niche retailers including Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. ETH, and At Home Group Inc. HOME, Usually when you see broad buying across a group, it’s a good sign that some kind of turn is about to happen. Retailers like Macy’s Inc. M, -0.63% , Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. AEO, -1.13% and many others are biting the bullet and closing stores. That is good. “There’s rationalization, and capacity coming out of the system,” says Chris Terry, a portfolio manager at Hodges Funds.

Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. AEO, and many others are biting the bullet and closing stores. That is good. “There’s rationalization, and capacity coming out of the system,” says Chris Terry, a portfolio manager at Hodges Funds. There are finally a few fashion trends — like a resurgence of denim or the popularity of Adidas AG ADDYY, -0.08% Stan Smith and Superstar sneakers — that are helping several retailers.

Stan Smith and Superstar sneakers — that are helping several retailers. The jobs market has been strong and workers are getting raises, despite what Donald Trump tells you. This helps explain why consumer confidence in September rose to the highest level in nine years, according to The Conference Board, which could bode well for holiday shopping.

A lot of retailers have worked down the excess inventory that built up in the sluggish first half of the year.

Valuations look good. “It’s the cheapest part of the market,” says Terry, a portfolio manager at the Hodges Small Intrinsic Value Fund HDSVX, +1.07% . “We’re overweight retail.”

All of this suggests that now might be a good time to step up and selectively buy some retailers, ahead of the holiday season. Given the wretched season last year, they face easy comparisons this year. “I think there is an opportunity here to see a revival,” says Sarah Henry, a retail-sector analyst at Manulife Asset Management. “We have the Christmas holidays coming. More and more, spending gets done around events.”

Here are five retailers to consider, based on recent executive insider buying activity and fund manager suggestions.

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance

Shares of this beauty-products company did well after I suggested it in my stock newsletter, Brush Up on Stocks, in September 2014 at $116. They were up over 130% by this summer. Now, in the current weakness, insiders, who put this stock on my radar back then, are buying again. They’re good insiders to follow.

Ulta Salon recently posted robust 14.4% comparable-store sales growth, and it is doing well in e-commerce, where sales advanced 46%. But investors were disappointed with guidance. Then Amazon announced it is getting into quick-delivery beauty products.

Guidance wasn’t so shabby, at an expected 11%-13% growth in same-store sales, including expected 40% growth in e-commerce. As for Amazon, at least one director doesn’t seem too worried. Dennis Eck purchased over $5.2 million worth of stock in the $234 to $247 range, and that’s a good signal to follow.

Abercrombie & Fitch

Two insiders bought over $430,000 worth of stock in September as high as $17.65, which is a significant signal. The stock is now lower as investors continue to flee following a round of negative sell-side analyst reports after the company reported disappointing numbers in late August.

Sure, Abercrombie will continue to have trouble because of the strong dollar, which keeps tourists away and hurts the translation of foreign earnings back home. But Abercrombie has done a good job of rebuilding its Hollister brand, and now it’s repositioning Abercrombie as “casual luxury,” and this could work, too. Meanwhile, the company is selling more directly to consumers via mobile apps. “We believe the company is on the right path,” says Jefferies analyst Randal Konik, who has a “buy” rating and $30 price target on the name. Abercrombie will also benefit from the closing of stores by Aeropostale, which is in bankruptcy.

Genesco

Shares of this retailer fell hard recently, trading down to the low-$50 range from $74. In the weakness, the right kind of insiders, by my system, stepped up and made a sizable $600,000 purchase up to $51.40.

Genesco is a footwear-and-apparel company that sells through stores like Journeys, Johnston & Murphy, Schuh and Lids. It also has a license to distribute the Dockers, G.H. Bass and SureGrip brands.

The main problem last quarter was a fashion miss at the teen retailer Journeys during the back-to-school buying months of late summer. Journeys tends to go deep and narrow with styles, heavily concentrating on a small number of themes. So when it misses on fashion, it misses big. That’s what happened this summer (too many sneakers from Vans, not enough Adidas).

So what happens now? Genesco will get back on track with the right fashions, as it has done in the past following fumbles. Journeys is quite popular with teens, so it will get a second chance. “It’s not the first time that Journeys has had this kind of issue. Every few years this happens,” says Jay Kaplan, a portfolio manager at Royce & Associates who helps manage the Royce Total Return Fund RYTRX, +0.22% . “They are selling to teens and young adults, and the fashion can change on a dime. There’s no reason to think that once we get into the winter, they won’t be on to the next thing, and fine. Because that is the pattern.”

J.C. Penney

CEO Marvin Ellison bought almost a half million dollars worth of stock in August at $9.92. That followed an even bigger purchase by him at a higher price in March. Now you can get the stock at lower prices than that. Why should you? Ellison is buying into a turnaround. Insiders buying turnarounds is a combination that has led to many winners in my stock letter.

J.C. Penney is remodeling stores, getting into appliances, improving e-commerce efforts, tightening up its supply chain and moving into more merchandise with its own brand on it — a good way to fend off Amazon. It’s improving customer service. And J.C. Penney is moving into more plus-size clothing. All of this seems to be working. Comparable-store sales grew 2.2% in the second quarter, and the company expects 3%-4% growth for the year.

“J.C. Penney is back on track,” says Terry at the Hodges Funds, which owns the stock. “Comps are now positive and above department-store peers.”

American Eagle Outfitters

There hasn’t been any insider buying in this name since CEO Jay Schottenstein bought over $10 million worth in the $13-$16 range a year ago. Eagle shares are now at around $17.70. But they still look cheap. “The stock is still below 14 times earnings,” says McWey, at Heartland Funds, which owns the stock.

With Schottenstein back at the helm, Eagle is in turnaround mode and progress has been good. “They have done a better job of generating consumer loyalty and traffic to their stores,” says McWey. “They have grown same-store sales for five consecutive quarters.”

Denim is more popular now, and Eagle is hitting those styles right. “It looks like there is a denim cycle coming again, and denim is really important to them,” says Kaplan at Royce & Associates. “They are not having the discounting they had a year ago, and that tells you the costumer likes their product.” Eagle’s Aerie teen intimate division is also strong, posting sales growth of 20% to 30%. Meanwhile, Eagle has a clean balance sheet with no debt and lots of cash. It pays a 2.8% yield.

At the time of publication, Michael Brush had no positions in any stocks mentioned in this column. Brush has suggested ULTA, GCO and AEO in his stock newsletter, Brush Up on Stocks. Brush is a Manhattan-based financial writer who has covered business for the New York Times and The Economist group, and he attended Columbia Business School in the Knight-Bagehot program.