AOL Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong doubled his stake in the company and now holds about $20 million in AOL shares.

Armstrong purchased 477,000 of AOL shares at an average price of about $20.97 totaling approximately $10 million according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

AOL shares were up 3.7 percent at $22 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They are down around 10 percent year-to-date.

Armstrong is trying to turn around the troubled company after it split from Time Warner Inc in December 2009 ending a disastrous decade-long merger.

Armstrong, a former Google executive, is attempting to reshape AOL into an online media and entertainment powerhouse attractive to advertisers. The company bet big last week with the $315 million purchase of the influential site The Huffington Post.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Derek Caney)