We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we’d be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Australian Vanadium Limited (ASX:AVL).
What Is Insider Buying?
It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information.
We don’t think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Columbia University study found that ‘insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own company’s stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers’.
Check out our latest analysis for Australian Vanadium
Australian Vanadium Insider Transactions Over The Last Year
While there weren’t any large insider transactions in the last twelve months, it’s still worth looking at the trading.
Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid AU$76k for 5.50m shares. On the other hand they divested 3600000 shares, for AU$58k. Overall, Australian Vanadium insiders were net buyers last year.
Insider Ownership
Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. From our data, it seems that Australian Vanadium insiders own 7.5% of the company, worth about AU$1.7m. Overall, this level of ownership isn’t that impressive, but it’s certainly better than nothing!
So What Does This Data Suggest About Australian Vanadium Insiders?
There haven’t been any insider transactions in the last three months — that doesn’t mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. We’d like to see bigger individual holdings. However, we don’t see anything to make us think Australian Vanadium insiders are doubting the company. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it’s beneficial to identify the risks facing Australian Vanadium. Be aware that Australian Vanadium is showing 6 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 2 of those don’t sit too well with us…
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