SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — As investors wonder whether it’s safe to buy beaten-down stocks, some corporate executives already have made up their minds, splurging on shares in their own companies.

Some of them have shown a knack for snapping up their stocks at just the right time, based on historical-trading records complied by InsiderScore, a research firm that dissects executive transactions.

Consider AK Steel Holding Corp. AKS

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On Aug. 9, Chief Executive James Wainscott bought 25,000 shares of AK Steel at an average price of $7.96 apiece in open-market transactions. His purchase followed the company’s July 26 earnings report, which missed Wall Street’s profit target by 17 cents a share.

Based on Friday morning’s trading prices, he’s bagged a 14% gain so far.

The executive made a similar open-market buy in early March 2009 just as AK Steel shares traded near 52-week lows, and just before the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.19% began to rebound from its months-long plunge.

“Wainscott was one of the insiders who helped make a perfect market-bottom call back in March 2009, thus it’s encouraging to see him step up here again,” InsiderScore noted.

He’s not alone. On Aug. 8, Fernando Aguirre, the chairman and chief executive of Chiquita Brands International Inc. CQB, -2.01% , bought 133,000 shares worth $1.2 million — his largest open-market purchase since he joined the fruit company in 2004. The stock, acquired for an average price of $8.75 a share, was purchased for his family trust, based on a regulatory filing.

Aguirre also has earned a 14% gain on that investment. Shares of Chiquita Brands traded at $9.94 Friday morning. Investors had roughed up the stock Aug. 3, sending it down 20% on disappointing earnings.

A former Procter & Gamble executive, Aguirre has a “stellar track record” for buying Chiquita shares near market bottoms, according to InsiderScore. In February and March of 2009, he bought 124,700 shares in separate transactions.

Corning Chief Financial Officer James Flaws once nailed the eight-year low for the company’s stock in November 2008, buying 100,000 shares that now are worth 41% more. He’s looking to do the same again: On Aug. 10 and 11, he scooped up 75,000 shares at $13.49 to $13.77 a share.

The stock traded at $14.22 Friday morning.

Corning GLW, +1.37% shares are hovering near two-year lows and are down 26% for the year, slugged by slowing sales of liquid-crystal display televisions.

Since the stock market embarked on its roller-coaster ride in late July, some other executives and investors have made notable share purchases.

On Aug. 4, James Gorman, chief executive of Morgan Stanley MS, +2.35% , laid out $2.1 million to buy 100,000 shares at an average of $20.62 apiece. It was Gorman’s first insider buy since taking the helm of Morgan Stanley in January 2010, and the largest by a Morgan Stanley insider since 2007, InsiderScore reported.

Right now, his bet is under water. Shares of Morgan Stanley MS, +2.35% were trading around $17.47 Friday.

Former Warren Buffett stock-picker Louis Simpson paid $2.7 million on Aug. 8 for 100,000 shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK, -0.96% The price was equal to $27.46 a share. Simpson joined the company’s board in June.

“That’s the kind of director you want buying the stock,” said Ben Silverman, director of research at InsiderScore.

For more than a decade, Simpson earned plaudits from Buffett for handling the stock portfolio at Geico, an insurance subsidiary of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.A, +1.30% Simpson now runs his own investment firm, SQ Advisors. His Chesapeake investment is up 15% since Monday.

As for agricultural-equipment maker Deere & Co. DE, +0.65% , it too has a high-profile investor buying in: Bill Gates. The personal investment vehicle for the chairman and co-founder of Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.48% , Cascade Investments, is now Deere’s second-largest shareholder.

Cascade said Aug. 5 that it owned 21 million shares in the company, or 5% of Deere’s outstanding stock.

Shares of Deere have slid 26% since hitting a 52-week high in early April, wiping out $10 billion in shareholder value.

In addition, Robert Stiller, founder and chairman of fast-growing Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. GMCR, doubled his stake in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts KKD.